Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland
by serina-phantom
Summary: After being hit by a car, 18-year-old Yugi falls into the magical world from his childhood dreams, where he reunites with the Wonderland versions of his friends and learns of his true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror. YYY BR MM SJ
1. Prologue

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Okay, guys! This is a story that many have been waiting for and we are hoping that everyone will like it!

Lucy: This is a Yu-Gi-Oh! story based off of Tim Burton's genius version of "Alice in Wonderland"! We saw the movie and we just had to do this story because it was just too awesome to pass up!

Me: We plan on updating quickly, so be expecting it!

Lucy: Here is the prologue, based very closely to the movie, as you shall all see soon!

_**Prologue**_

Yugi Mouto started awake. His heart was pounding. The room around him was dark. The only glimmers of light slipped under the door from the lights in the hall outside his bedroom, and a small fleck of light came from the box containing the Millennium Puzzle, an Egyptian item that his grandfather had brought him all the way from one of his trips. They cast eerie shadows on the walls of his pale blue bedroom walls.

He'd had that dream again. It was the same every time.

The tiny eight year old pushed back his heavy bedcovers. He shivered as his bare feet hit the cold carpeted floor. Sounds echoed from downstairs- the strong, comforting voice of his father and the answering guffaws of his fellow CEOs in the living room of the Kame Game Shop that Yugi's grandfather owned.

The pale curtains fluttered at his open window as Yugi pulled open the heavy bedroom door. He crept down the carpeted hall, a ghostly figure in his oversized white T shirt. A floorboard underneath the carpet creaked underneath him as he passed his mother's room.

Yugi froze, waiting for the stern word to send him back to bed.

Silence answered him. Another roar of laughter from the men downstairs. Either his mother had already fallen asleep, or she was pretending to. It couldn't be that late, Yugi hadn't been asleep that long, had he?

As Yugi hurried down the long staircase, the smooth wood of the banister felt like polished brass under his small hands. He stopped in the doorway of the living room, transfixed by the comforting sight of his father.

Charlie Mouto(1) stood near the window, dressed in the same gray suit that Yugi always saw him in. A circle of men; CEOs that Yugi didn't recognize; sat listening to him, captured by his ardor the way Yugi usually way. He spoke passionately about his new idea. Yugi was too little to understand it, but he knew that if his father believed in it, then it must have been something truly and absolutely wonderful.

Peering around the door, he recognized one of the faces in the crowd. It was the CEO Mr. Oshita, a dour, aristocratic man with none of Yugi's father's energy or life. Mr. Oshita's son, Gansley, was a pasty, stuck-up little boy with no sense of humor. Yugi thought he was horrific, but he tried to be nice to him. He thought that he would be a horrible person, too, if he had been raised by Mr. and Mrs. Oshita.

Instead, he had his father, who understood him completely. Yugi wrapped his hands around the small doorknob and leaned on the solid door, waiting for Charlie to notice him.

"Charlie," said Mr. Oshita. "you have finally lost your mind."

"This venture is near to impossible," agreed another CEO, his thin mustache twitching as he spoke.

Charlie Mouto smiled a grin that made Yugi feel warm inside. How could anyone disagree with his father about anything? Now that was near to impossible. If Charlie thought it up, then it was brilliant and possible.

"For some, it may be impossible," Yugi's father said. "Gentlemen, the only way to achieve the impossible is to believe in it."

Yugi pondered this a moment.

"That kind of childish thinking will ruin you, Charlie," said a man in an ill-fitting brown suit with strings of red mixed into the coloring. It gave Yugi a headache just looked at it. He wondered how someone could wear such a horrid color.

"I'm willing to take that chance," Charlie said, smiling. "Imagine it! We could spread Kaiba Corps' machinery all over. Imagine it! Trading posts in Denmark, Bangkok, America…"

He waved his arms, imagining the exotic and faraway places that they could stretch the business that they worked for; Kaiba Corp. It was a vast and productive business place that his father and the rest of these men worked for. His eyes glistened as he dreamed of the faraway ports, and his gaze drifted across the room and fell on Yugi. Immediately, he stopped speaking and crossed the room to him. The other CEOs turned and saw the tiny blond-red-black- child standing in the door in nothing but his father's giant, ratty T shirt. Yugi's father crouched beside him and put his warm hands on his son's trembling shoulders.

"That nightmare again?"

Yugi nodded, thinking of immaterial cats and a talking hare and a strange hatter and a king dressed in all white. Charlie took one of his son's hands in his larger one and turned to his guests with a kind smile.

"I won't be long, gentlemen," he said.

Yugi leaned against his father's shoulder as he carried him up the giant staircase. Yugi's mother would have scandalized if Yugi had shown up in the middle of the night during one of her parties with her friends. She would have sent him straight back to bed on his own. But Father understood him. He always understood, and he was always there for Yugi.

Charlie tucked Yugi back into his bed again and sat down beside him. "Tell me about it?" he asked, patting his son's hand.

"I was falling down a dark hole," Yugi said. "and then I saw strange creatures…" He stopped. It all sounded too strange to believe, but his father listened with a serious, attentive expression on his face.

"What kind of creatures?" he asked.

"There's a dodo bird, I think," said Yugi. "a rabbit in a waistcoat, a smiling cat-"

"I didn't know cats could smile," Charlie said.

"Neither did I," said Yugi, but he could see the bizarre smiling cat in his head as clear as day, as well as the smile left behind when the rest of the cat disappeared. He shivered. It was all so very strange. "There's a hatter, a king in all white, a queen… Oh, and there's a blue caterpillar," he said, remembering the puffy brown mushroom that the creature had been sitting on as if he had just seen it before him.

"Blue caterpillar?" Charlie asked gravely. "Hmmm."

Yugi gave him a worried look. "Do you think I'm insane, Father?"

His father felt his forehead, looking just like the doctor when he was checking for a fever. He made the doctor's "bad news" face and said, "I'm afraid so. You're insane. Mad. Bonkers. Off your rocker." Yugi frowned when he heard this. "But I'll let you in on a little secret," Charlie winked and gave his son a smile. "All the best people are."

Yugi couldn't help but smile back. He leaned against his father with a soft sigh.

"It's only a dream, Yugi," he went on. "Nothing can hurt you there. But if you get too scared, you can always wake up. Just like this." Suddenly he pinched Yugi's arm, not very hard, but it made him shriek with surprise. Laughing, Yugi pinched him back, and he laughed, ruffling his son's multi-colored star-shaped hair. "Exactly," he said. "You see? Nothing to worry about. It's only a dream, Yugi."

He kissed his son's forehead and slowly stood up.

"Good night, Father," Yugi whispered.

But as he listened to his father's soft footsteps going back down the stairs, a shivery feeling ran across his skin. He cast a distraught look over at the Millennium Puzzle, as if it had been the cause of all the trouble.

How could a dream be so real?

* * *

Me: So, when Yugi was little, he had nightmares that are exactly like what Alice had in "_Alice in Wonderland_"! (1) I know this probably isn't his father's real name, but we never see Yugi's father, so this is who he is!

Lucy: Okay, guys! This story will be updated along with "Seven Days to Suffer" and our other promptly! We're a bit nervous about posting this one so please don't be cruel and we shall update soon!

Me: To see what'll happen, read on!

Lucy: We plan on updating quickly, so we fear we won't get many reviews, but he are hoping to get as many reviews on as many chapters as possible, please and thank you all who read and enjoy this! If you don't like, don't read!


	2. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Here is the first chapter, everyone!

Lucy: Like in the Tim Burton film, this starts off at a party, but you will all see how things move from here! It will be an amazing story, or so we hope and we pray that everyone who reads it will enjoy it!

Me: Like we said, we are updating fast, so please review the other chapters if you have not!

Lucy: Please enjoy!

_**Chapter One: Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves**_

The black limousine careened down the dark road at full speed. Outside the dark, tinted windows, the tall buildings of Domino flashed by. Inside the dark, cramped limo, Yugi Mouto fidgeted with his strange outfit- a tuxedo with a female's touch to it. It was almost like a mix between a tuxedo and a dress, like something they would wear in the Victorian era. He wished he could be back at the Game Shop with a book and a candy bar, instead of stuck here on his way to a dreary, boring party with a lot of dreary people.

The little boy haunted by his nightmares had grown into a beautiful young man. There was something unusual- and unearthly- about his beauty. His large amethyst eyes seemed to see things differently from other boys his age.

Beside him in the limo seat, Sugoroku Mouto fussed over Yugi's hair. Yugi's grandfather could never understand why Yugi's wild star-shaped blond-black-crimson hair was so unmanageable. Though their hair styles were about the same, Sugoroku had never had this much trouble trying to keep his hair slicked and looking neat while Yugi's just stuck in all directions like a startled starfish, his blond bangs hanging in front of his eyes.

Yugi twitched uncomfortably as his grandfather yanked a stray strand of the black portion of his hair back out of the way.

"Do we have to go, Grandpa?" Yugi asked. "I doubt they'd even notice if we never arrive." He gave a loud yawn. His body ached with exhaustion, and the last thing he wanted to do was make polite conversation for hours. It would have been better if Yami was here, but he was back at the Game Shop with Jonouchi, making sure things were kept under control in Sugoroku's absence.

"They will notice, trust me," his grandfather said sternly. He adjusted Yugi's long black-blue outfit and reached to retie the sash around his waist. His fingers poked probingly at his grandson's stomach. His gray eyebrows arched in surprise. "Yugi, where's your corset?" he asked, looking into his grandson's dull purple eyes. What was the world coming to? Couldn't his grandson even dress himself for a party on his own? Dreading the worst, he lifted Yugi's black pant legs up above his shins, where his heavy leather boots stopped, and gasped. "And you aren't wearing any socks either?"

"I'm against them," Yugi said with yet another loud yawn.

"But you're not properly dressed!" Sugoroku pointed out.

"And just who decides what's proper?" Yugi asked, with that maddening streak of impossible logic he'd inherited from his father. "What if the CEOs suddenly decided that the 'proper' attire for one of their events was wearing a fucking fish on your head? Would you wear it, Grandpa?"

Sugoroku closed his eyes with a sigh. "Yugi."

"To me, a corset is like a fish on my head," Yugi said. "Stupid and unnecessary for someone my age, especially someone in this day and age. Who even wears corsets anymore? And there are no guys I know who wear corsets!"

"Please," his grandfather said. "Not today."

Yugi sighed and turned to look out the window at the flashes of light from the streets and the buildings. "Yami and dad would have laughed," he muttered. He instantly felt a pang of guilt and turned to see his grandfather's hurt expression. "I'm sorry, Grandpa. I'm tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."

Sugoroku touched his hand softly. "Did you have nightmares again?"

"Only one," Yugi murmured. Caterpillars and March Hares and strange smiling cats flitted through the back of his mind. He shook his head. "Yami was worried. He said he woke up because he heard me scream. He said he ran into my room and I was moaning and whispering 'no' under my breath. The dream's always the same, the same as when I was little. Do you think that's normal? Don't most people always have different dreams, Grandpa?"

He gave his grandfather a searching look, but Sugoroku was examining Yugi's attire again as he thought over his grandson's question. He'd never been as good at deciphering his dreams like Charlie was.

"I don't know," Sugoroku said softly. He removed the strange necklace with the Mouto family symbol that Charlie use to own from around his own neck and clasped it around Yugi's with nimble and gentle fingers. "There! You're so handsome." He patted his grandson's cheek with a smile. "Now, can _you_ manage a smile?"

The limousine slowed as it pulled up the long, sweeping drive in front of the Oshita mansion. Yugi's head ached as he followed his grandfather inside the large mansion to the indoor gardens that took over almost the whole lower level, where the party was in full swing. Ladies in the newest style of summer dresses swooped about, twittering over the beautiful flowers like flocks of birds. In the near distance, small skiffs drifted lazily on the small indoor river. A few guests were playing croquet on the wide great indoor lawn, the colorful balls bright red, yellow, and blue against the false green grass.

Yugi pressed his fingers to his temples as a piece of his dream flashed before his eyes- equally silly and stuffy guests playing croquet with flamingos for mallets and hedgehogs for croquet balls. He would have laughed, but something about the scene in his mind filled him with a wave of dread. There was someone there… someone to fear.

He was distracted from the memory of his dream by his grandfather seizing his hand and hurrying him over to the Oshitas. "Try and smile, Yugi," he reminded Yugi under his breath. Yugi fixed an unnatural smile on his face as he bowed to his elegant hosts.

Mr. Oshita hadn't changed in ten years; he was still as ramrod stiff and unflappable as ever. His wife was not much better, although her composure seemed to be rattled tonight. Her face was bright scarlet with annoyance as she looked Yugi up and down. Yugi was certain that she noticed the missing corset and the missing socks. He was certain that the thick, heavy black boots that he wore also annoyed her. Her look made Yugi want to stick out his tongue and do a cartwheel, just to make Mrs. Oshita as angry and as critical as she usually was. He was certain that she would have chastised him for doing such things, and it just made him want to do it even more, but for the sake of his family reputation and his grandfather, he didn't.

"At last!" Mrs. Oshita burst out. "We thought you'd never arrive! Yugi, Gansley is waiting to dance with you." She flapped her hands at Yugi. "Go!"

Yugi allowed himself to be shoved away and went looking for boring old Gansley, who also- very unfortunately- hadn't changed at all in these past ten years.

Behind him, Mrs. Oshita lowered her voice as she turned to Sugoroku. "You do realize it's well past eight!" she scolded. "Now everything will have to be rushed through!"

"I'm sorry about that," Sugoroku said.

He had learned by now that it was better to just apologize than to explain the whole saga of trying to fight with Yugi about dressing and getting ready for a party. For the sake of his family and their reputation, which was gained due to his son Charlie, he wouldn't ever tell them of his grandson's hatred of dressing up for parties.

"Oh, never mind!" Mrs. Oshita said abruptly and bustled off, her sharp eyes fixed on a teetering tray of sandwiches.

Mr. Oshita nodded down at Sugoroku. "Please forgive my wife," he said in his softest voice. "She's just a bit on edge. She has been planning this thing for nearly nineteen years, you see, and she wants it to go off without a hitch."

Sugoroku smiled back. He was use to Mrs. Oshita and her cruel behavior. "I know, though I'm not certain Yugi'll like it," he sighed, feeling bad at what he must have been putting his grandson through. "If only Charlie were here," he said sadly. "Though he'd probably never let this happen if he were."

Mr. Oshita gave a little bow. "My condolences, sir. I think of your son often. He was truly a man of wisdom. I hope you don't think that we're taking advantage of your misfortune by having this little thing happening," he went on, looking serious. "I know Charlie would have never allowed this to happen, but it's really better for the companies, you see? Charlie needs someone to take his place, and Yugi's… well…"

"Of course not," Sugoroku said, shaking his head. "I'm happy that you decided to take up Charlie's old job and that Gansley seems… pleased about all this." He sighed. "I suppose one of them has to."

There was not much more he could say. Yugi was going to be furious, and Sugoroku knew this. But what could he do? Yugi couldn't spend the rest of his life working in the Game Shop, and if things went as well as needed, then Yugi would be happy. Maybe he'd have to suffer a bit, but he'd soon learn to be happy. Sugoroku knew that it was selfish, but his daughter-in-law had already agreed before he could say anything about it, and there was nothing that he could do about it now. Sugoruoku could say much more- how often he missed his son, how angry Charlie would be if he knew that his wife was putting Yugi through right now, how often Sugoroku thought of his son, all the wonderful things he was, how much he missed him- but to express oneself in such a manner in front of CEOs, especially at one of these parties, was not proper, so he kept his answers short.

The tall aristocratic CEO allowed himself to smile. "I was a fool for not investing in his mad venture when I had the chance."

Sugoroku's smile was true this time. "Charlie thought so, too."

Elsewhere in the indoor garden, Yugi had already been drawn into a line dance with the Oshita's son, Gansley. They bowed and stepped and crossed and bowed again along with the other young sons and daughters of the CEOs at the party until Yugi felt ready to scream out of sheer boredom.

"Gansley," he said lightly. "do you ever tire of this cr- uh, I mean, stuff?"

Gansley was refined and immaculately dressed, like his parents. He radiated aristocratic arrogance and a sense of entitlement. As the son of a famous CEO, he felt like he would be just as famous when he took his father's place. His hands felt flabby and damp against Yugi's, and he looked down his long nose at him as if he didn't understand the question.

"On the contrary," he replied. "I find it invigorating."

His strutting and preening made him look exactly like a peacock in the zoo in the main part of Domino. Yugi couldn't help laughing. His golden bangs and his black-and-crimson star-shaped hair flew out behind him as they spun around.

Gansley's eyebrows knitted together. "Do I amuse you?"

"No," Yugi said, his eyes sparkling like those of a mischievous child. "I had a sudden vision of all the ladies in top hats and the men wearing bonnets. That'd be interesting to see, now wouldn't it? Role reversal!"

Gansley didn't even crack a smile. "It would be best to keep your thoughts to yourself. When in doubt, remain silent."

Yugi rolled his eyes. He had been hearing this advice his entire life whenever one of the CEOs was over at his house. He had been hearing it from almost every single one of the CEOs, except his father. Now that he was gone, in a place that Yugi knew must be Heaven, Yugi felt like there was almost no one in the CEO world who understood him. His smile faded, and they kept dancing, though Yugi had a hard time keeping his mind on the music. His eyes drifted to the ceiling where a small flock of bluebirds that had been released into the room were flapping overhead.

Distracted by them, he bumped into the dancers in front of them, who whirled around with outraged expressions.

"Pardon us!" Gansley jumped in officiously before Yugi could apologize. "Mr. Mouto is a bit distracted this evening." He ushered Yugi away from the dancing green with a frown on his face. Yugi glanced at the sky again, but the bluebirds were gone. He frowned and looked at his escort with a slight glare.

"Where is your head?" Gansley snapped at him.

_Oh my shoulders, idiot. Are you blind now?_ Yugi let the thought stay in his mind, though he would have loved to voice it. "I was wondering what it would be like to fly," Yugi said dreamily. His father used to lift him over his head and whirl him, shrieking with delight, around the room. He imagined it would be something like that.

"Why would you waste your time thinking about such impossible things?" Gansley asked.

Yugi laughed, a sound like silver bells in the light. "Why wouldn't I?" he answered. "My father said he sometimes believed in six impossible things before breakfast." He smiled, remembering one morning when he was seven years old. He'd found his father buttering his toast and demanded to know what the six impossible things were that he'd believed in before breakfast had started that morning.

"Well," Charlie had said seriously, setting his toast down. "First I believed that there were three little boys living on the moon."

Yugi giggled. "That's silly! How would they get there?"

"That's the second thing," Charlie said. "I believed that hey flew there on special bikes. It makes sense, when you really think about it."

"But bikes can't fly!"

"I see you need some practice in believing in impossible things," his father said, returning his attention to his cup of coffee. "I can't possibly tell you about the other four if you're going to disbelieve every one."

"Oh no, please, please," Yugi had begged, leaning against his knee and gazing up at him with wide eyes. "Please tell me the rest! I promise I'll believe you!"

"All right," he'd said, lifting Yugi onto his knee. "If you promise. The third impossible thing I believed is that the moon is made out of cheese. But then I had to believe that there must be long bridges on the moon, stretching over the seas of cheese, so the girls would have somewhere to ride their bikes. Otherwise they would sink into the cheese and would never be seen again!"

"Of course!" said Yugi. He counted on his fingers. "That's four. What's the fifth?"

"Fifth," said Charlie. "I believed that there was a blond rabbit in a waistcoat that led the boys to the moon every single night."

Yugi gasped. "Just like in my dream! Is it the same rabbit?"

"Most likely," his father said gravely. "He's quite busy, this rabbit. He's got a lot to do, and I hear he's frequently late for his appointments."

"He is." Yugi breathed, round-eyed with awe.

"And the last impossible thing I believed before breakfast," he said. "was that I have the smartest, handsomest, bravest, most well-behaved son in all of Domino."

"That's not impossible!" Yugi protested, giggling.

"Oh, it was by far the most difficult of the six," Charlie assured him. "I had to try terribly hard to believe it. It took me ages and ages. My coffee was almost frozen by the time I finally was able to truly believe it above anything else."

"Daddy, you're teasing me!" Yugi said. He poked the suit over his father's stomach.

"But the good news is that I believed it at last," his father said, hugging him close. "I believed it so much that it came true, and now, here you are!"

Nearly twenty-year-old Yugi laughed again, remembering his father's stories. He didn't notice the pained expression on Gansley's face. He wished Yugi could be like all the other children of CEOs: quiet, restrained, predictable. None of this strange talk about impossible things and breakfast. He glanced around and saw his mother hovering at the nearest tea table. Mrs. Oshita waved impatiently, fixing him with a "hurry up" glare.

Ahem. Gansley cleared his through and turned to look down his nose at Yugi again. "Yugi, meet me under the gazebo in exactly ten minutes," he said

Yugi gave his retreating back a curious look. He didn't like being ordered around, especially by someone he didn't like. Exactly ten minutes! And how was he supposed to achieve exactly ten minutes without a watch? A true gentleman would have given him his, but then he wouldn't have been able to glare at it impatiently when Yugi was late. And there was nothing Yugi like more than to see Gansley angry or irritated.

Amused by his own wayward train of thought, Yugi stepped toward the refreshment table, but found his way blocked by a pair of giggling girls; one in a bright pink dress and the other in an emerald green dress. The Ponce de Leon sisters; Lucy and Katherine; were famous for gossiping about the CEOs behind their backs, and with the looks on their faces, they were eager to reveal something that they shouldn't.

"We have a secret to tell you!" Lucy said eagerly.

"If you're telling me, then it's not much of a secret," Yugi pointed out. He didn't really enjoy gossip, but the way that Katherine and Lucy spoke about the stuck-up CEOs was just too funny to pass up.

Katherine clung to Lucy's arm. "Perhaps we shouldn't!"

"We decided we should!" Lucy said, looking betrayed. Her long brown-orange hair was up in a long ponytail while Katherine's hair was down. That was one of the only ways that Yugi could tell them apart.

"If we tell him, he won't be surprised," Katherine observed.

Yugi's interest spiked. The secret involved him? Perhaps he really didn't want to know. The way they looked let him know that while it was something that would usually be something to celebrate, Yugi would be dreading it.

Lucy turned to Yugi. "Will you at least pretend to be surprised?" she demanded.

"I won't really be if you tell me, and it'll be hard to pretend," Yugi said. "But you already brought it up; you have to tell me."

"No, we don't," Lucy drew herself up.

"But, Lucy!" Katherine protested. "If we don't tell him, then he won't be prepared! And what if he has a heart attack because of it? That'll just ruin everyone's mood! He's right- we brought it up, we have to tell him!"

"No, we don't, and we won't!" Lucy said.

Yugi sighed. Why did the Ponce de Leon sisters have to be so maddening at all the wrong times? Luckily, Yugi had a trick up his sleeve. He folded his arms. "I wonder if Mrs. Kingston knows that you two were the ones who put the frog in Mr. Kingston's socks."

The sisters gasped loudly.

"You wouldn't!" Lucy shouted.

"Oh, but I would," said Yugi with an evil smile. "There's Mrs. Kingston now." He took a giant step toward Mrs. Kingston, one of the women cooing over the flowers. "Oh, Mrs. King-" Katherine's hand clapped over his mouth in a panic, leaving the rest of his sentence hanging in a muffled grunt behind her hand.

"Gansley is going to ask for your hand!" she blurted out.

Yugi nearly dropped dead. He blinked at Katherine and Lucy, too astonished to speak. The two girls were waiting for him to faint, their faces full of worry. Their faces turned pale as a hand landed on each of their shoulders. Yugi's childhood friend Madeline stood behind them, a look of fury on her face.

"You ruined the surprise!" she snapped. With a push, she sent them off toward the false river and pulled Yugi aside. "Oh, I could strangle them!" she whispered, tuckering her arm with Yugi's. "Everyone went through such an effort to keep the secret."

In a daze, Yugi looked around at the other party goers. Now he spotted how people looked at him and then quickly looked away. Now he noticed how their whispers stopped as he passed. Now he saw the half-hidden smiles of glee on most of the women's faces, the knowing looks on the men. He felt a flutter of panic in his chest.

"Does everyone know?" he asked.

"It's why they all came," Madeline said brightly. "This is your engagement party! Gansley will ask you under the gazebo." She looked as if she couldn't imagine anything more thrilling. "When you say yes-"

Yugi interrupted her. "But I don't want to marry him."

Madeline's face was disbelieving. "Who then? You won't do better than the son of one of Japan's most famous CEOs." They both looked over at Gansley, who was standing on the outskirts of the indoor garden muttering to himself, rehearsing his proposal, Yugi realized. As they watched, he blew his nose loudly, studied the contents of his napkin, then folded it and put it back in his pocket. Yugi shuddered violently.

"You'll be twenty in two years, Yugi," Madeline said in a no-nonsense voice. She patted Yugi's cheek. "That handsome and boyish face won't last forever. You don't want to end up like Miss Havisham." She nodded at the middle-aged woman, who was cramming small sweet cakes into her mouth. Her cheeks were covered in a thick layer of rouge and her yellowing wedding dress was in a style much too young for her.

Madeline turned around to face Yugi. "And you don't want to live the rest of your life in a game shop, do you?"

Yugi stared at her. "I happen to like the game shop!"

Madeline went on as if Yugi had answered "no" to her previous question. "So you will marry Gansley," she said, satisfied. "You will be as happy as I am with Nathan, and your life will be perfect. It's already decided."

Yugi felt as if he was suffocating. The weight of everyone watching him, knowing he had no choice, pressed down on him. Would this have happened if Father was still alive? Yugi thought of the man he truly loved, Yami. He hadn't told Yami about his love for him, for fear that Yami wouldn't feel the same way. But now, all Yugi wanted was for Yami to hold him in his arms and protect him from marrying Gansley. Charlie and Yami would never let Yugi marry Gansley… but Charlie was gone, and Yami wasn't here right now- having been stuck at the Game Shop in place of Suguroku that night-, and there was nothing Yugi could do about that. He had to marry Gansley.

_It's already decided._

He was trapped.

* * *

Me: Oh no! Yugi, you can't marry him! You're meant to love Yami and no one else! It is written!

Lucy: And as you can imagine, the two characters Lucy and Katherine Ponce de Leon were based off Ke-chan and myself! But enough of that for now, since Yugi is about to be dragged into something awful!

Me: Where is Yami and what will he do about this?

Lucy: Please review this chapter and the previous one and we shall all update as soon as possible! We hope this story is good and we pray that we get lots of good reviews for it, guys! Thank you all so much!


	3. Choice of the Heart

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Here is the next chapter, everyone!

Lucy: Yugi has just found out that he has to marry Gansley, and he's not happy about it! But of course, who would be when someone like that was trying to marry you? I'd panic too!

Me: Anyway, to find out what will happen, please read on!

Lucy: We hope you all enjoy!

_**Chapter Two: Choice of the Heart**_

Mrs. Oshita suddenly loomed in front of Yugi. He sharp face leaned down, her features pinched up. "Yugi, dear," she said smoothly. "shall we take a stroll through the garden? Just you and me?" She seized Yugi's elbow and propelled him away from Madeline.

Yugi cast a pleading look back over his shoulder, but Madeline only smiled and waved. Her face seemed to say: _that's your future mother-in-law! You'd better get use to it!_

Yugi was out of breath by the time they entered the maze of rose gardens, which were real compared to the fake grass of the indoor gardens. Pink, red, and white roses bloomed all round him, filling the air with their sweet perfume. Mrs. Oshita kept them moving at a fast clip, and Yugi wondered what the hurry was. His hair was getting messier with each second. He thought of how Gansley would disapprove, so he shook his head to make his hair even messier than it had been before.

Mrs. Oshita spoke suddenly. "Do you know what I've always dreaded?"

"The fall of the business world?" Yugi suggested, but Mrs. Oshita didn't acknowledge the joke. She carried on as if Yugi hadn't spoken.

"Ugly grandchildren," she said, answering her own question. "But you are handsome." She beamed at Yugi's fair skin, his lustrous hair, his elfin and childish features, that resembled those of a tiny, young angel. "You're bound to produce little… _imbeciles_!"

Yugi jumped. That wasn't where he'd expected that sentence to go. But then he realized that Mrs. Oshita had gotten distracted in the middle of her speech. The aristocratic lady had stopped to glare furiously at an innocent looking bush of beautiful white roses that shone in the light from the ceiling and the moon like pearls.

The rosebush shook as Mrs. Oshita tore off one of the roses and peered at it. "The gardeners planted white roses when I specifically asked for red! Can't those idiots do anything right?"

A glimmer of dream memory tiptoed through Yugi's mind. "You could always paint the roses red, you know," he suggested.

Mrs. Oshita gave him a strange look. "What a strange thing to say." She pushed Yugi forward along the neat gravel path that lay in the middle of the faux grass. "Come along." Her voice was stern and commanding.

As they hurried forward, Yugi lifted his head. Was that… jingling he'd heard? It was hard to tell over Mrs. Oshita's obnoxious voice.

"You should know that my son has extremely delicate digestion," she was saying, but Yugi missed the rest of the sentence as something large and blond darted past the. Yugi whirled around, blinking, but it was gone once again.

"Did you see that?" he asked.

Mrs. Oshita seemed displeased by the interruption. "See what?"

Yugi glanced around at the dark leaves and brightly color flowers in the faux garden. "It was a rabbit, I think." He felt a strange prickle along his skin. Something tugged at the back of his mind, as it did whenever Yami wanted to speak through the mind-link, but there was something about this tugging that was completely different.

"Nasty things," Mrs. Oshita sniffed. "I rather enjoy setting the dogs on them. Don't dawdle." She dragged Yugi toward the gazebo, but the young man didn't notice. He was still looking for the blond rabbit as Mrs. Oshita continued her lecture about Gansley's digestion. "If you serve Gansley the wrong foods," she said. "he could get a blockage."

This time it was unmistakable. A large blond rabbit was just off the path, standing on its hind legs and staring directly at Yugi. And it was wearing a waistcoat with the words BROOKLYN written across the chest. There was no mistaking it this time.

Yugi blinked. The rabbit darted behind a tree. "Did you see it that time?"

"See what?" Mrs. Oshita said again,

"The rabbit!" Yugi cried, getting frustrated.

"Don't shout, child!" Mrs. Oshita said snootily. "Pay attention. Gansley said you were easily distracted. She patted her sweating forehead with a soft, white cloth. "What was I saying?"

"Gansley has a blockage, I guess," Yugi said, edging away. "Look, Mrs. Oshita, I couldn't be more interested in your son's digestion, but you'll have to excuse me." He dove into the wood area off the path, escaping Mrs. Oshita's clutches. For a moment, he blundered through a thick cove of faux trees, but he saw no sign of the blond rabbit. He stopped, his mind reeling.

A hand landed on his shoulder, and he jumped. He calmed when he saw that it was only Miss Havisham, her bright pink cheeks disturbingly close to Yugi's face.

"Miss Havisham," Yugi said, leaning back a little. "I think I'm going insane. I keep seeing a blond rabbit in a Brooklyn waistcoat."

"I can't be bothered with your rabbit now," Miss Havisham said, gently patting her ridiculous mixture of black and graying curls. Her dark eyes lit up as she looked over the group of partygoers. "I'm waiting for my fiancé."

This was strange enough to distract Yugi from the rabbit for a moment. "You have a fiancé?"

A sudden flash of blond darted past him and he whirled around. His gaze searched the tangled faux shrubbery frantically, but everything was still once again, as if nothing had disturbed its false slumber.

"He's a prince," Miss Havisham went on, ignoring Yugi's actions to go back to the story of her fiancé. "But, alas, he can't marry me unless he renounces his throne. It's very tragic, isn't it, dearie?"

Yugi gave her a skeptical look. "Terribly." Perhaps Miss Havisham had lost _her_ mind. She sounded madder than Yugi did right now. Yugi smiled and nodded politely, backing away from the old woman. Miss Havisham had her hands clasped under his chin and was gazing off into the distance, waiting for her imaginary fiancé to arrive. Yugi was able to duck behind a tree, and he ran into yet another partygoer.

"Sorry- sorry!" Yugi called, trying to move around the unknown guest.

"Oh, it's all right," a familiar baritone voice chuckled.

Yugi gasped and glanced up into familiar crimson eyes. His yami, the former Pharaoh of Egypt and the former spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, stood before Yugi, dressed up in a manner that was like all the other partygoers; formal. Though he was smiling, there was something strange about his expression. A soft hidden pain seeped into his red eyes, and his smile wasn't the one that Yugi had fallen in love with.

"Yami!" Yugi gasped with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to come see you," Yami murmured. He tucked his arm with his aibou's and together they started walking down the length of the garden. "Kaiba smuggled me in, claiming that I was his cousin. Which, if you consider past lives, isn't a lie."

Yugi smiled up at his yami, his secret crush. "You would get to see me when the party was over. Did you miss me that much?" he teased.

Ancient grief and sorrow passed Yami's face for half a second. Yugi didn't miss that. He looked to Yami in shock. "I had to see you, Yugi," he murmured, as if speaking to himself. "I had to see you one last time before…"

Yugi gasped and stopped walking, looking up at his crush with a horrified expression.

Yami knew.

The sorrow on his face, the way he was speaking to Yugi, it all pointed to the fact that he had been told about this engagement party, just recently, and that he knew that if Yugi married Gansley, and he had no choice, then Yami would most likely never see him again. Gansley must have known about Yugi having a crush on Yami, and there was no way that he would ever allow them to see each other again.

"Yami-" Yugi would have continued, but as he and Yami looked over, they both spotted Madeline's husband, Nathan.

To their surprise, Nathan had his arms around a woman and was kissing her passionately. That woman, however, was not his wife, Madeline. Whoever she was, she took one look at Yugi, let out a small shriek of surprise, and ran off into the woods.

"Nathan?" Yugi asked disbelievingly, Yami staring with wide eyes beside him.

"Yugi," Nathan said, highly flustered, his face bright scarlet. "We were, just… uh, she's an old friend."

"Ha. I can see that," Yugi said with narrowed eyes.

Not even ten minutes ago, Madeline had been extolling the virtues of married life an explaining how being married to Gansley would make Yugi's life as perfect as her own, married to Nathan. Was this what she meant? Did she really have no idea what was happening behind her back? Could Madeline be happy with a man like this?

Yami's eyes were narrowed dangerously. This man, this Nathan person, Yami didn't like the way he said Yugi's name so familiarly. Someone who cheated on their wife didn't deserve to even look at Yugi, let alone say his first name as if they were friends.

Nathan adjusted his suit, his face bright red. "Look, you won't mention this to Madeline, will you?" he asked.

"I don't know," Yugi said, stepping back. Yami's arm tightened protectively. Yugi knew that he didn't want to cause Madeline pain- but shouldn't she know the truth about her husband? He didn't know what was the right thing to do. "I'm confused. I need some time to thing this over, Nathan, and then we'll see where it goes from there."

"Well, think about Madeline," Nathan said, half pleading, half commanding. "She would never trust me again. You don't want to ruin her marriage, do you?" He ended with a threatening tone to his voice.

Now Yami's rage had intensified. No one commanded his aibou like that, and no one would dare threaten Yugi as long as Yami had some say in it. He knew, with a great deal of pain, that his aibou would soon be marrying a man that he had no love for, against his will, since everyone expected him to, and when that happened, Yami would no longer be able to protect his innocent little aibou, whom Yami would never admit that he had feelings for.

"Me?" Yugi protested loudly. "But I'm not the one who's sneaking around behind her back and sucking face with-"

"There you are!" Gansley's voice interrupted.

He popped out of the trees and seized Yugi's hand. Without a word or a glance at either Yami or Nathan, he dragged Yugi away, wrenching him from Yami's grasp. Yugi cast a horrified and pleading look to his yami. Yami gave Yugi an agonized look and reached for him, but both of them knew that there was nothing they could do.

Yugi stumbled on the rough ground. It seemed too far soon to find himself standing with Gansley under the statuesque gazebo that adorned the faux garden. The shadows of the pillars fell on him like prison bars. Yugi shifted uncomfortably, looking down at Yami, whose expression was still as pained as before. Yugi's heart thudded. He glanced around and noticed a string quartet discreetly position in the shadows. Their bows were already lifted and poised to play… just waiting for him to say yes before they added some swelling music to the dramatic moment.

Gansley dropped down on one knee. Yugi's heart sank with him. He'd been hoping that Madeline was somehow wrong, that this wasn't really about to happen.

"Yugi Mouto," he said, taking Yugi's hand.

"Gansley," Yugi interrupted.

"What is it?" he asked with an irritated frown. In the crowd, Yugi heard Yami growl at the heir to the Oshita fortune.

"You have a caterpillar on your shoulder." Gansley jerked backward and began frantically brushing at his shoulder, wriggling in disgust. "Don't hurt it!" Yugi cried. He stepped forward and let the small caterpillar crawl onto his finger. Then he lifted it and placed it on one of the only real leaves in the gardens.

Gansley curled his lip at Yugi's hand as he came back to stand in front of him again. "You'll want to wash your hand," he said, edging away from Yugi. Yugi didn't mind. He preferred that Gansley wasn't touching him.

Someone cleared their throat nearby, and the two young people in the gazebo glanced around to see Gansley's mother gesturing eagerly at them. In fact, the whole crowd was staring at them- Yami and Kaiba included. Kaiba looked shocked, and Yami looked as if he were in agony, like he were about to yell "no" and yank Yugi away from the nasty man that had the intention of marrying his dear, sweet aibou.

Yugi felt the weight of all their eyes on him, and apparently Gansley did, too, for he blurted out as loudly as possible: "Yugi Mouto, will you marry me?"

The question hung in the air for a long moment.

_No, no, no, a thousand times, no!_ Yugi wanted to scream this, but the words wouldn't come out. Unsure of himself, unsure of his future, unsure of his own sanity at that moment, Yugi began to stammer. "Well, everyone expects me to… and you're the heir to a great company… and my looks won't last… and I don't want to end up like… and I want to be able to... but this is happening so quickly… I, I… think… I…"

Something caught the corner of his eye as he was shaking.

It was the blond rabbit in the Brooklyn waistcoat, leaning against a pillar in the gazebo, looking to Yugi with undisguised impatience. He tapped his pocket watch and pointed at Yugi and then pointed to the exit of the massive indoor garden.

Maybe he was crazy, but he couldn't ignore the rabbit.

"I need a moment," he explained, backing away. He turned and ran as quickly as possible, fleeing the gazebo.

Cries and murmurs from the crowd bubbled up behind him, but he didn't look back. He heard Yami shout his name, and he became aware that Yami was trying to break free of the crowd and run after him. Yugi ran with his tri-colored hair flying out behind him, chasing the blond rabbit, just as he had in his dream, over and over again.

They ran across the manicured garden, into the hall that led to the drive outside, and then out onto the concrete where the limousine rested. Yugi ran as quickly as possible, but he could only see the rabbit as a blur now. He couldn't hear Yami shouting that well behind him; his crush's voice was just a soft hum. Yugi rushed onto the concrete, his boots clicking on the cement, heavy thuds echoing in his ears.

Shaking, with the rabbit out of sight, Yugi became aware of his situation.

He didn't want to marry Gansley. Yugi would wait here until Yami came and held him, as he knew he would, and then Yugi would blurt out how much he loved the former spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.

A white light caught the corner of his eye. Yugi became a deer in headlights as two huge eyeball-like blurs came flying at him. He turned, the massive car coming up the drive going at a speed too fast to see Yugi. While his instincts screamed for him to run or roll out of the way, his legs were stiff, his terror keeping him in place.

Suddenly, a blond paw reached up and grabbed him by the ankle. With a quick jerk, it yanked Yugi off his feet just as the metal body of the car slammed into him. Yugi threw out his arms and screamed.

He felt the pain of the car as it struck him, but it wasn't as bad as he imagined. The paw around his foot felt like it had ripped his soul from his body, and maybe it had. Yugi saw his body far away from him for a split second before darkness swallowed him, and it became clear what was now happening to him, just like in his dream.

He was falling

down

the rabbit hole.

* * *

Me: Okay! So, Yugi has been dragged into Underland just as soon as he was hit by a car! But is he going to be okay? Has the Rabbit saved him by dragging him into Underland?

Lucy: And what will Yami do?

Me: To answer all of these questions and more, please read on as soon as we update!

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	4. Falling Down the Rabbit Hole

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: The next chapter is up and running!

Lucy: Yugi has already fallen down the rabbit hole, and now we are going to find out exactly where that had led him!

Me: A few of the Wonderland characters appear now, and we shall see exactly what is going to happen. In the next few chapters, you will all see who each of the characters are.

Lucy: Please enjoy it!

_**Chapter Three: Falling Down the Rabbit Hole**_

Yami was in too much shock to move. He had followed Yugi as soon as his aibou had run off, intent on telling him how he felt. It was obvious that Yugi didn't want to marry Gansley, and Yami needed to tell Yami his feelings.

"Yugi!" he'd shouted when Yugi ran away.

He'd shoved through the crowd and made his way after his aibou. Yugi could run fast when he wanted to, and it had been hard for Yami to catch up to him.

When Yami finally spotted his aibou, Yugi was standing in the middle of the drive, looking around as if searching for someone. At that time, a massive car, another limousine, had come flying around the corner, right for Yugi. Yugi'd turned, eyes wide like a deer, and the limo didn't have enough time to stop. Its brakes squealed, but the front of the car slammed into Yugi, throwing him high up into the air.

Yami suppressed a loud yell as his aibou rolled over the hood of the car and landed with a heavy thud on the concrete.

The rest of the crowd had come after Yami when Yugi'd run away, just in time to see the car nail him. Screams from the ladies, and one loud one from Sugoroku, burst from the still crowd, all of their eyes wide with horror. Yami was the first to move, screaming Yugi's name until his throat was raw. He rushed to his fallen partner's side.

Yugi was face-first on the ground. Yami rolled him over gently, and to his surprise, Yugi was completely unharmed.

Not a single scratch ruined his looks, and his eyes were closed as if he were asleep. His chest barely rose and fell, and this led Yami to be afraid. He tried not to jostle his aibou, as he had been instructed not to do by Kaiba. The CEO and owner of Kaiba Corp got one of the CEOs to call an ambulance while he sat beside Yami and watched as the star-haired yami stared down at his aibou in horror.

_Yugi_, Yami thought, his body trembling.

Deep in the back of his mind, he might have known that something was wrong. Even the sirens of the fast approaching ambulance couldn't snap Yami from his trance. His mouth whispered his aibou's name over and over again silently as Yugi was loaded into the back of the ambulance.

Once he snapped out of it, Yami rushed after the ambulance at top speed, using his shadow magic to keep an even speed with it. He had to be with his aibou no matter what, and he'd be damned if something bad happened to Yugi.

**UNDERLAND**

Yugi's screams echoed as he tumbled head over heels down the enormous, dark hole. His hands reached out, searching for something to stop his fall, and he realized that the walls around him were lined with odd things… thing you would never expect to find in a rabbit hole. Hanging on the dirt walls were crooked paintings, ancient maps, cracked mirrors, demonic masks, and bookshelves crowded with bizarre paraphernalia.

He grabbed the first thing his hand touched and found himself holding an empty jam jar. Frustrated and terrified, he let that go and grabbed for something else- a crystal ball. Growing frantic, he scrambled through object after peculiar object, finding himself holding books, more jam jars, a badger claw, a monkey's hand, and finally a human skull. With another shriek, he flung this last terrible thing away from him and kept falling, down and down and down into deeper darkness, where there was no longer anything to grab on to.

Still he fell, as night passed into day and day passed into night, down and down, still falling.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Yugi landed on a hard wooden floor, smacking his head hard as he hit the ground. "Ah!" he cried in pain as the wind was knocked from him. He gasped for air for a moment, then sat up, rubbing the bump on his head.

He was in a circular hall with closed doors all around him. There was something strangely familiar about it, although he couldn't imagine when he would have been in a round room at the bottom of a rabbit hole.

_Maybe this is a room in the Millennium Puzzle?_ he wondered to himself. _Yami's room does have a lot of doors to it. This could be one of them. But what it's doing at the bottom of a rabbit hole is a mystery to me._

Yugi got to his feet and tried one of the doors, but it was locked. He tried the next- and the next- but they were all locked. What was the use of so many doors if you couldn't go through any of them?

Finally, he took a step back and glanced around the hall. That's when he noticed a three-legged glass table nearby. Had that been there before? He didn't understand how he could have missed it, but then he considered how hard he had whacked his head, and then it seemed clear as to how he had missed seeing it.

There was a tiny gold key sitting on top of the glass tabletop. Yugi picked it up and tried it in a couple of the doors, but it was far too small. He paused and studied the key for a moment, then glanced around at all the doors in the hall, wondering if any of them were small enough for this key.

He spotted a thick velvet curtain between two of the doors and swept it aside, revealing a door much smaller than the others. It was only about two feet high and quite narrow, with a pattern of vines carved into the wood.

Yugi crouched to fit the tiny key into the lock of the little door. It fit perfectly. The small door swung open, and he ducked his head to look through to the other side.

It was difficult to see much, but he could tell that beyond the door was a garden with a fountain in the center. He got down on his stomach and tried to squeeze through the doorway, but his shoulders got stuck in the frame, and no matter how he wriggled, he couldn't go through.

With a sigh, he wriggled back into the hall and the door blew shut again. Stumped, he climbed to his feet and went to put the key back on the table. What use was it to him if he couldn't even get through the door with it?

"Whatever room this is, it's weird," Yugi murmured aloud. "This must be how people feel when they're on drugs."

He looked up at the ceiling of the room, which he was certain hadn't been there before. His eyes were wide, and he looked around. If he didn't do something soon, he was going to be stuck here forever. He'd never see Yami again, unless Yami came down and got him. But a part of Yugi's mind had its doubts that this circular hall was even in the Millennium Puzzle. Yugi wasn't wearing his Puzzle when he fell in, since he couldn't use the mind-link to call Yami, so did that mean that all of this was a dream.

Still stumped, Yugi walked to the table. But to his surprise, there was now a bottle sitting on the glass top of the table. He wasn't sure it hadn't been there before. Yugi looked around curiously, wondering how it could have gotten there.

The hall looked deserted. Yugi squinted at the bottle. A tiny white label around its neck said: DRINK ME. _Yeah, that sounds like a great idea_, Yugi thought. _Follow the mysterious instructions of someone you can't see. Drink the mystery potion. What could go wrong?_

He removed the lid, sniffed the contents of the bottle, and recoiled. It sure didn't smell appetizing.

Yugi looked around the room again. On the other hand, he didn't have a lot of choices. He shrugged with a sigh. "Hey, it's only a dream," he said aloud to himself. A very familiar dream… all though he couldn't remember falling asleep. Maybe it was when the headlights came at him? Perhaps on his way to the gazebo? It was all so muddled now. But this was a dream. There was nothing real about it. And if this was a dream, then what could happen to him?

Yugi poured some of the drink into his mouth, shuddered, and coughed, gagging at the taste. Apparently things could still taste horrible, even in dreams. He replaced the bottle top and suddenly noticed that the table was getting larger. He frowned at it.

It took him half a second to realize that the table wasn't growing. He held out his hands and stared at them in shock as he got smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, he was only about a foot and a half tall, surrounded by a puddle of his overgrown clothes.

_Well, this raises a few problems… but at least it solves one_, he thought. Wrapping his sash around his body to lift his clothes out of the way, Yugi flounced over to the small door and tried to open it, dragging his massive clothes behind him.

He groaned in dismay. It was locked again! And of course he'd left the key on top of the table. He turned and gazed up at it through the glass tabletop. The key glittered in the dim light, as if mocking him from far out of reach.

What Yugi didn't know was that at that very moment, he was being watched.

A round eye blinked at him through a keyhole. "You'd think he would remember this from the first time," muttered the eye's owner.

There was a flutter of feathers and some jostling, and a new, smaller eyes, this one purple and rimmed with sandy fur, replaced the first one in the keyhole. "Of course he doesn't remember it! You've brought the wrong Yugi," said this new watcher.

"He's the right one," said another voice behind them with a thick Brooklyn accent. "I'm sure of it this time!"

The second eye blinked dubiously. "Yeah, _this_ time."

Yugi was now trying to climb the table leg, but he kept getting tangled in his too-big clothes and sliding down. He was starting to think this was impossible. He'd never get back to that key. He'd be stuck tiny and trapped and tormented by the key just out of reach until he wasted away and died.

_I'll never see Yami again!_ Yugi thought in horror. _I'll never beat Jonouchi at Duel Monsters again! I'll never see Grandpa or Ryou, or Bakura or Malik, or Marik or Anzu or Honda or any of my friends ever again! _He let out a loud, horrified gasp. _I'll never get to eat a hamburger at Burger World ever again! Nooooooo!_While food should have been the least of his worries, Yugi then noticed a small box under the table. Now that hadn't been there before, either! Yugi whirled around and glared at the door of the hall.

Exasperated, Yugi opened the box. Inside was a beautiful little cake with the words EAT ME written across it in ordinate pink icing. It was almost too pretty to eat, but again, he didn't have much of a choice. He considered the cake. _'Eat me'? Huh. That's sketchy_, he thought. He looked up at the key, high above him on the table. It was worthy a shot. Of course, he might disappear altogether, but then he'd just wake up from the dream, and that would be all right, too.

Yugi took a tiny bite of the cake, and then another.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, he shot upward. He grew and grew at an alarming rate. He reached his normal size, where his clothes fit again… and then he kept growing. Buttons popped, seams began to strain, and his clothes grew tighter and shorter and more painful- Yugi couldn't help but think of how furious Mrs. Oshita would be if she saw him so exposed like this in public or at the mere sight of his bare ankles, which was like a cardinal sin to her. But then Yugi was distracted by the feeling of his head bumping against the ceiling. What if he kept growing until he filled the whole hall? What would happen then?

To his relief, that was where he stopped. Towering over the table, he bent far down and picked up the small key. It looked no bigger than an eyelash in his giant hand. He sidled across the room, crouched, and put the key into the small door's lock.

"He's the wrong Yugi," said the second voice definitively.

"'Ey, give him a chance!" the third voice with the Brooklyn accent insisted.

Yugi laughed at the thought of trying to fit through the door at his current enormous size. He sat down with the bottle in one hand. Sipping from it again with a horrid cough, he managed to shrink himself down to the perfect size for the door- about a foot and a half tall. Of course, now his clothes were far too big again, but he'd solved one problem again.

Tying a loose piece of fabric into a strange dress-like outfit that reminded him of something out of Tim Burton- a mixture of black and blue fabric- around his body so that he wasn't naked, his hands and feet bound by the same color fabric, he ran to the door, unlocked it, and stepped through, breathing in the fresh air.

* * *

Me: Yes! Yugi made it into Underland!

Lucy: But oh no! Yami's going to freak out because Yugi's been hurt in the real world! Oh, what a conundrum this is! Anyway, we hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.

Me: Read on and review nicely!

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	5. Caterpillars and Tweedles

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: All right! Next chapter!

Lucy: Yugi has been hit by a car and Yami took him to the hospital! Meanwhile, Yugi has fallen into Underland, and now we are going to find out what will become of him now!

Me: Read on to find out!

Lucy: We hope you all enjoy this chapter!

_**Chapter Four: Caterpillars and Tweedles**_

In the hospital, Yami paced the waiting room like a madman. His heart was heavy and his thoughts were just as dark as his eyes must have been. Whenever his heart was filled with worry or fear, his normally bright crimson eyes would turn dark black to match his mood. And now, they were the deepest black they had ever been.

Sugoroku sat in one of the chairs, wringing his wrists, biting his cracked lower lip.

His grandson had been in surgery for several hours, and there was still no word on what was wrong with him. The doctors had come in about an hour ago and had confirmed Yami's observation that Yugi had no external injuries.

Because of this fact, the doctor feared that Yugi's injuries were internal, and therefore, they were performing as many tests as possible to see what was wrong.

Yami slumped into the chair next to Sugoroku, his shoulders quaking. Yugi's grandfather placed his hand on Yami's shoulder and rubbed it. He knew what Yami must have been going through, since he and Yugi were yami and hikari. The bond between them was so thick that it was no wonder that Yami felt as horrible as he did.

Yami was still mouthing Yugi's name over and over and over, never speaking it for fear that if he whispered his aibou's name, he would break down and realize that maybe it was too late to save his aibou. He refused to believe that.

But then the doctor showed up.

And he was sporting his "bad news" face.

"I have some terrible news," he said, and Yami instantly wanted to throw up. He didn't want to hear that there was anything wrong with his aibou. "About twelve minutes ago, Yugi fell into a level one coma, and we're not certain that he'll ever wake up from it."

Yami's heart thundered, and his eyes flooded with unshed tears. Yugi was… in a coma? No, that wasn't possible! Yugi couldn't be! But the proof was all around him. He shuddered as the doctor murmured that they would do everything they could. He shook and almost cried, but he refused to cry in front of the doctor. Yugi would want Yami to be strong and to believe in him, and if Yami believed hard enough, then Yugi would come out of his coma soon. The yami bit his lower lip and closed his eyes tight.

_Yugi, Yugi, Yugi, please wake up_, he thought, letting the sentence slip unnoticed through his mind as his shoulders quaked beside Sugoroku, whose tears were sliding silently down his wrinkled old cheeks.

**UNDERLAND**

The world Yugi stepped into was strange and beautiful and unexpected, like a garden glimpsed in a mirror from far away. For some reason, he had expected it to be fill of flowers- talking flowers with silly personalities. But this garden was brown and tangled instead. Stone statues, all of them seeming to be of the same person, a tall man in royal armor, littered the walkways, many of them broken and overgrown with dead vines, and all of them were missing their heads. The fountain no longer glittered with sun-speckled water. It was still and empty, covered in a creeping greenish-brown moss.

Something loud bellow behind him. "_HAAACHOOOOOORRRRW_!" Yugi whirled around and saw a bright neon green pig dash past, its emerald hooves clattering on the dusty path. He blinked at its curly, brilliant green tail as it vanished behind a long green hedge.

His eyes fell on a row of flowers towering above him, and he jumped. They _did_ have human faces- how had he known they would? But these were not the faces he'd expected to see. These faces were gaunt and haunted, as if the flowers were starving. Their eyes stared blankly past him, and their petals hung limply, with pale washed-out colors barely visible against the brown and gray and green backdrop. None of them spoke to him, though a few let their gaze travel slowly across his face, then drift back to the ground.

No that Yugi was paying attention, he could see living things moving all around him. Up in the air, dragonflies the size of horses were doing battle with horseflies the size of dragons and gnats bigger than any animal he'd ever seen. They swooped and zoomed toward one another, buzzing and stinging angrily. The weak sun, hidden by a haze of thick gray clouds, barely illuminated the blue-green bodies of the dragonflies and the iridescent wings of all the battling little insects.

Yugi jumped again as another creature stalked past him- a shabby, thin bird on legs as tall and thin as the stilts clowns used in the circus. He saw more birds that looked the same: shoulders hunched, drab feathers falling out, knobby legs that looked too skin to support even the bird's thin frame.

"Okay, this is weird," Yugi muttered. This place was familiar and yet… somehow not. It seemed… sadder than he imagined it would be. Things seemed dark and wicked, and it was as if the whole world was starving and quiet, waiting for some white knight to appear and rescue it from the crushing loneliness.

"See? I told you he was the right Yugi!" a voice with a Brooklyn accent yelled triumphantly.

Yugi whirled around. A cluster of the oddest, and most familiar, creatures stood behind him, all of them staring at him intently. The speaker was the Blond Rabbit, who stood with his front paws neatly tucked into his waistcoat, which still read BROOKLYN across the front in stitched red letters. His long blond ears poked from a large amount of blond hair, and his pink nose twitched as he looked at Yugi, brown eyes wide.

Yugi stifled a gasp. _J-Jonouchi?_

Sure enough, the Blond Rabbit looked like the animal version of his best friend. They even had the same accent! The Blond Rabbit noticed Yugi's shocked look and wiggled his nose again with a wide smile.

Yugi was getting an equally intense look from the large bird next to the Blond Rabbit- a dodo bird, if he was not mistaken. He was peering at Yugi through a pair of eyeglasses and he was leaning on a walking stick. His expression and his movements reminded Yugi if Pegasus, the creator of the Duel Monster's game that Yugi and Yami had defeated at Duelist Kingdom.

The rest of the party consisted of one young dormouse in breeches with sandy fur and bright purple eyes who reminded Yugi of his friend Malik Ishtar, and a pair of two thin boys with long black hair and blue eyes who looked identical to Mokuba Kaiba, Seto Kaiba's younger brother who usually was kidnapped and always tagged along with Kaiba even if it meant that he was going to get kidnapped again. The two Mokuba look-alikes were twins, and they had their arms around each other's shoulders. Words were embroidered on their stiffly starched white collars. One said DEE and the other said DUM.

"I am not convinced," said the Dormouse, shifting back and forth on his paws.

The Blond Rabbit threw up his paws. "Well, how do you like that!" he cried, his voice thick with Jonouchi's Brooklyn accent. "I've been up there for weeks, 'cause none of you babies'd go up there, trailing one person after the next! I was almost eaten by thousands of other animals! Can you imagine? They're entirely unclothed and they do their… _shukm_… in public!" A full-body shudder rippled through his blond fur. "I had to avert my eyes!" He touched one paw to his forehead in a dramatic fashion.

"He doesn't look anything like Henry did(1)," one of the flowers suddenly offered. A few of the other flowers with human faces perked up a little and squinted at Yugi, who felt like a specimen under a microscope at this point.

"That's because he's the wrong Yugi, I said," said the Dormouse again.

The pair of Mokuba look-alikes spoke up.

"And if he was, he might be," said the one with DEE on his white collar.

"But if he isn't, he ain't," said Dum.

"But if he were so, he would be."

"But he isn't. No-how."

They both shook their pale faces, surrounded by their long manes of spiked black hair solemnly, their blue eyes looking to the ground before them as if it were suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.

Yugi put his hands on his hips. "How in Hell's name can I be the 'wrong Yugi' if this is my dream?" he demanded. "And just who the heck are you, if I might ask?"

One of the Mokuba look-alikes seized his hand. "Oh, I'm Tweedledee, and he's Tweedledum," he rattled on quickly.

"Contrariwise," the other piped in. "I'm Tweedledum- he's Tweedledee."

That didn't give him much of an answer, really.

The Dodo, who reminded Yugi of Pegasus, cleared his throat. "We should consult the Caterpillar about this."

The others all nodded. Even the talking flower's head bobbed up and down. "Exactly," she said in a thick exotic accent that reminded Yugi of a sultry vampire. "The Caterpillar will know who he is."

Tweedledee offered Yugi his arm. "I'll escort you," he offered.

Just as Yugi was about to take it, Tweedledum suddenly seized his elbow and yanked Yugi away. "Hey, it's not being your turn! So unfair!" he insisted with a snap of his teeth, one that made Yugi shudder. How could that not hurt?

Tweedledee grabbed Yugi's other arm and tried to tug him back to him. "Hey, leave off!" he yelled to his twin brother.

"Let go!" bellowed the other.

Yugi thought he was going to be split in half at any moment. He wriggled free and tried to jump away, but the two boys had him by the arms again. He groaned in pain. "Are they always this way?" he asked, turning to the rabbit.

"Family trait, I'm afraid," answered the Blond Rabbit. "You can both escort him!" He said this firmly to the Tweedles with a glare.

Shooting daggers at each other with their eyes, Tweedledee and Tweedledum each took one of Yugi's arms and led him forward. The Dormouse, the Dodo, and the Blond Rabbit followed close behind them.

As they walked through the overgrown garden, Yugi could hear whispering from the talking flowers as he walked by. The whispering was always about him.

"It can't be him," murmured a glum-looking daisy.

"He looks nothing like Alice(2) did," agreed a drooping tiger lily.

"Now that I get a good look at him, he does sort of resemble Henry, a little," said one of the violets. "He's a bit more childish, though. He's missing Henry's crimson eyes."

"I'm not convinced!" snapped a rose. "There's no way he's Alice's reincarnation!"

Yugi ignored their confusing words and peered at the tiger lily as they hurried by. It couldn't look familiar… how silly! All tiger lilies looked the same, Yugi was positive. And yet there was something about this one, as if they'd met before. How peculiar this dream was getting.

"Who is this Caterpillar?" Yugi asked his companions. The name seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it right now.

"He's wise," said the Blond Rabbit. "He's absolute."

"He's the Caterpillar," the Tweedles added in unison, as if that should answer the question. Yugi realized he wasn't going to get much more useful information out of them. He'd have to wait until they reached this wise old Caterpillar to see how he remembered him, or if he knew him at all.

Yugi blinked, and then blinked again. The garden path sloped down a little hill, and slowly- so slowly that at first he hadn't noticed it- they were surrounded by a strange mist. Through the mist he could see that they were wandering into a tall forest, but the trees were not by any means ordinary. Their trunks were fat and pale, and when Yugi looked up to see the branches, he saw a flat brown canopy extending out from the top of the trunk in n unbroken circle.

He gasped softly. They weren't trees; they were mushrooms. He was standing in a forest of tall mushrooms, many of them towering high above hs head. The earth was spongy and it squished under his feet.

"And just who are you?" intoned a deep voice.

Yugi's eyes traveled up the nearest trunk- up and up and up to where the mist was rising in a steady plume. It wasn't an ordinary mist. It was the smoke of a hookah. And that hookah was currently being smoked by a very large blue and white caterpillar with a humanoid appearance.

A shiver rippled through Yugi's body. He did remember something about a caterpillar in his dream. But before he could remember all of it and it fit the pieces of his memory back together, the Blond Rabbit pushed him toward the tall mushroom.

"Uh," Yugi stuttered. "Kaiba?"

The Caterpillar writhed a little, looking displeased by the answer. He did look like Kaiba, if Kaiba had been turned into a blue and white caterpillar. Their features and attitude seemed to be almost identical. "You're not Kaibae(3)," he pointed out. "_I'm_ Kaibae. The question is, silly child… who are _you_?"

He inhaled deeply, then puffed a series of smoke rings in Yugi's face. Yugi coughed and tried to wave the smoke away.

"Yugi," he answered when he could breathe again.

"We'll see about that, little boy," the Caterpillar answered, his dark blue eyes skeptical, just like Seto Kaiba's.

"What do you mean by that?" Yugi demanded. All this stuff about him being the 'wrong Yugi' was starting to annoy him. He didn't know anyone else by that name. "I think I ought to know who I am!"

"Yes, you ought," said Kaibae with a disapproving look. "Stupid boy. Unroll the Oraculum, Rabbit, if you please," he added, his tone commanding, though his sentence made it sound like he was asking.

The Blond Rabbit hopped over to a nearby toadstool, only as high as Yugi's shoulders. He bounced up on his strong back paws and grabbed the ancient parchment lying rolled up on top of it. With a dramatic flourish, he unrolled it toward Yugi.

"The Oraculum," he announced proudly. "Being a Calendrical Compendium of Underland."

"Give the boy a prize," Kaibae rolled his eyes. "He can use a dictionary."

The Blond Rabbit gave the Caterpillar a heated glare. Ignoring them, Yugi peered over the Rabbit's shoulder. It was the oddest scroll. It looked nothing like his schoolbooks with their even rows of dates and boring historical facts. But it was clearly a timeline, with important events marked for each day. Every day had a title, but every day also had an odd little illustration under it… and some of them were moving.

"It's a calendar," Yugi guessed.

"Compendium," Kaibae corrected him. "It tells us each and every day since the Beginning."

"Today is Griblig Day in the time of the Red Queen," explained the Blond Rabbit. He pointed with one paw to the illustration underneath the words that read "Griblig Day" in a text that was hard for Yugi to make out.

To Yugi's surprise, the illustration showed him, the Blond Rabbit, and all the others peering at it that very moment.

_Okay, this is trippy_, he thought. _More than trippy, it's messed up! How can something know what was going to happen before it happened? Geez, it's like something out of the Twilight Zone!_

"Show him the Frabjous Day," said the Caterpillar. His long blue and white coils rippled as he went back to smoking the hookah.

The Blond Rabbit flipped ahead the scroll, turning the rolls on either side to advance into the future. Tweedledee was too impatient to wait for a result. He was dancing on his feet, a look of excitement on his face.

"Oh yeah! Frabjous being the day you slay the Jabberwock!" he told Yugi.

"Sorry?" Yugi asked. "Slay a… what?"

Tweedledee pointed to the Oraculum, and Yugi turned slowly to see the illustration on "Frabjous Day". It was one of the moving pictures-unfortunately, since the thing moving in it was one of the most horrible creatures Yugi had ever seen. Worse than any Duel Monster. It was as tall as a giraffe with reptilian wings, scales, long sharp claws, a pronged tail, and a dragon-like skull. Not to mention its enormous gnashing teeth and wide, flaming eyes.

In the picture, the Jabberwock hissed furiously at a male knight with blond bangs and star-shaped hair with a mixture of black and violet, wearing chain mail, and carrying a shiny silver sword. They fought, blade clashing against claws and scales, and the Jabberwock shrieked with anger.

Tweedledum's finger poked into Yugi's view, tapping the illustration of the knight. "Oh yeah, that being you there with the Vorpal Sword."

"No other swords can slay the Jabberwock," said Tweedledee. "No-how."

"If it ain't Vorpal, he ain't dead," said Tweedledum.

"Vorpal?" Yugi asked.

The Blond Rabbit piped in. "Rumors say it was made from the strongest of metals and that it's the only thing that can slay the Jabberwock. It's the only one that can cut into it."

Yugi stared at the image, transfixed. That couldn't be him. He'd never worn chain mail in his life. Left alone lifted a sword! Well… no, he had. In the digital world that Noa had trapped them in, but he'd never word it in real life. He couldn't even imagine battling a creature like that. It was more horrifying than any Duel Monster, than the Leviathan that had claimed him when Yami lost to the Orichalcos, and even more terrifying than the Lord of Terror himself, Zorc Necrophades.

The knight in the picture swung his sword, turning his face toward the readers of the scroll. Yugi gasped loud, his heart skipping a few beats.

It _was_ him. And he had bloodlust in his eyes.

* * *

Me: Oh no! Yugi saw himself about to slay the Jabberwock! (1) You'll all find out who Henry was in a little while! (2) Again, this will make sense soon! (3) All these in Wonderland have some slight spell change to their names just so no one is confused with their normal counterparts. It's still pronouced the same, just spelled differently.

Lucy: And yes, we are aware that it was called "Jabberwocky" in the movie, but in reality, the creature is a Jabberwock.

Me: What will Yugi do now that he's learned this?

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	6. The Wrong Yugi

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: All right! Next chapter!

Lucy: Yugi has just seen himself about to slay something in Underland, and now he's scared to.

Me: Personally, I can't blame him. Though, if I were in Underland, I would have sooooo much fun there! I would love to run around with everyone, and have adventures, but there's no time for that!

Lucy: So, here we go!

_**Chapter Five: The Wrong Yugi**_

Yugi backed away from the Oraculum, shaking his head. "T-that's not me," he stammered. He refused to believe it. It was more impossible than any of the impossible things his father had believed before breakfast.

"I know!" the Dormouse snapped.

He flapped his paws at the Blond Rabbit, as if to hurry him along, but the Blond Rabbit just turned away and returned his attention to the giant caterpillar on the mushroom, who had gone back to smoking his hookah.

The Blond Rabbit sighed. "Can you help us here, Kaibae?" he asked, twitching his ears towards the blue and white caterpillar. "Is he the right Yugi?"

The Caterpillar looked over the top of his mushroom. He looked Yugi in the eye for a long, hard moment, pondering. His lips puckered tightly, and a loud sigh escaped his pale blue lips. He shook his head and put the hookah back into his mouth, taking a long, hard drag from it in one single breath.

"Hardly," he said at last.

Smoke slithered from his hookah and covered him until only his blue eyes were visible. Yugi flinched at the cold look he gave him. It was the look of the sages, one that commanded a great deal of respect.

"You're not hardly Yugi," the Caterpillar said.

Once Kaibae was gone, chaos broke out among the creatures on the ground.

"I told you!" the Dormouse shrieked.

The Blond Rabbit snapped his fingers, looking dismayed. "Dammit! I was so sure that I got it right this time!" The look on his face made Yugi feel bad for being the "wrong" Yugi. If he could have done something about it, he would have.

"I said so!" Tweedledee said.

"I said so!" said Tweedledum.

"Contrariwise, you said he might be," snapped his brother.

"No, you said he would be if he was!" shouted Tweedledum.

"Imposter!" shrieked the Dodo in a wicked voice that reminded Yugi even more of Pegasus, when he was furious with them or when he was taunting them. "Pretending to be Yugi! He should be ashamed of himself!"

All of them glared at Yugi as if everything was his fault.

"Look, back the hell off, okay?" Yugi commanded, and they all stared at him in shock. "I am so very sorry that I'm the wrong Yugi! I don't mean to be!" His voice dripped with sarcasm. A sudden thought struck him. "Wait, this is my dream," he remembered. "I'm going to wake up now and you're all going to disappear. See ya later."

_Hmph!_ he thought with a huff. _Wrong Yugi, my ass!_

He closed his eyes and firmly pinched himself, the way his father had shown him when he was much younger. He clenched his eyes shut and made sure that the pinch was strong, but not so strong that it hurt, and after a moment, his eyes fluttered open.

The creatures were all still staring at him, with the pale misty trunks of the mushroom forest behind them.

Yugi pinched himself harder than before, this time aiming for it to hurt. The animals just looked at him, as if questioning his sanity. He bit his lip and tried again, aiming to make himself bleed if it would wake him up and get him out of here. None of the animals had the good manners to leave. Yugi stared at them with his lips pulled into a taut line.

"Huh," he muttered. "That's weird. Pinching usually does it."

He frowned at the creatures with a puzzled look on his face.

The Dormouse who resembled Malik in an animal form drew a long, sharp hatpin from the scabbard hanging from his breeches. "I could stick ya if that would help," he offered with a wicked little smile.

Yugi considered it for a moment. "That might work," he said. "Thanks. Go for it."

"My pleasure," replied the Dormouse, a little too eagerly.

He scampered over, rolled the hatpin in his small paws for a moment, and then plunged it deep into Yugi's ankle with relish.

Yugi shrieked with agony, grabbing for his foot. That hurt more than a pinch- and yet it still didn't work. He looked around, his ankle throbbing, and he was still in the world he thought was his dream. The animals looked at him, the Blond Rabbit wincing as the Dormouse took the hatpin back with a triumphant smile.

_What the Hell is going on here?_ Yugi wondered. _I'm going to try calling Yami. He'll know what to do, right? _Clearing his throat, Yugi cupped his hands and gave a loud holler. "Yami!" he called out as loud as his tiny lungs would allow. "Yami, can you hear me? You have to wake me up, Yami! I don't want to be here anymore! Wake me up, Yami! Wake me up!"

Yugi knew that Yami would hear him, if he was near.

Whenever Yugi slept, if he talked to Yami in his dreams, then he talked in real life, and Yami would hear him. It was like another way of communicating without the mind-link, which Yugi and Yami hadn't used in such a long time.

It still didn't work.

The nightmare was horrible!

And it promptly got much worse. A thunderous roar echoed through the mushroom forest, shaking the mossy ground beneath them. Yugi screamed as something came crashing through a high wall of weeds nearby. For a horrifying moment, Yugi thought that this creature might be the Jabberwock, come early to defeat Yugi before Yugi could defeat it- which he didn't plan on ever doing.

But the he realized that this new beast was furry, not scaly. It had the head of a rabid, white bulldog, and was oozing a green-colored drool from its squashed muzzle. Its white and black flecked fur was caked with blood and filth. Its teeth looked like shark's teeth, broken and stained with blood. A foul stench wafted off its body.

It wasn't the Jabberwock, but it was equally as horrifying.

"Bandersnatch!" the Tweedles screamed at the same time, grabbing onto each other and screaming as loud as their small lungs would allow. The roar of the Bandersnatch drowned out their horrified screams, and the more they yelled, the louder and louder the roars got.

Everyone scattered, fleeing for their lives. Yugi covered his head and ran back toward the garden. His heart pounded madly in his chest. He didn't want to be eaten, even if this was all just a dream.

**DOMINO HOSPITAL**

"He's so quiet," murmured Jonouchi. This was the quietest the blond had probably ever been in his entire life, except when he had been in a coma during Battle City. He peered down with a frown at his star-haired best friend.

Yugi lay on the bed in the hospital, where he had been placed hours ago. An IV was set deep in his vein, and he looked so unnaturally quiet.

Whenever Yugi slept, he made a noise or moved around. He did something to let Yami know that he was all right. The only movement now was the rise and fall of his chest, and that was the only thing that allowed Yami to know that his aibou was still all right.

Yami sat by Yugi's bedside, his hands clutching his aibou's.

He kept his head down, holding his aibou's right hand to his forehead, praying to any god that was listening that the small, innocent boy that he had a crush on would be okay. He said his prayer in his mind and let his lips move silently, repeating the words in case they needed to be spoken in order for the prayer to work.

"Hello!" Bakura called, waving his hand in Yugi's face. "Wake up, Sleeping Beauty! This is no time for a beauty nap!"

"'Kura!" Ryou snapped angrily. "Now's not the time for jokes!"

"I ain't joking!" Bakura yelled back at his boyfriend. He smiled apologetically at the hurt look that Ryou gave when Bakura yelled at him. Ryou nodded back to let Bakura know that he had been forgiven. The former thief king turned and looked down at Yugi's pale face. "Maybe he needs to be kissed awake, _Yami_." He swung his head to look at the former Pharaoh with a sly grin as he said this. Ryou snapped his boyfriend a heated glare, but Bakura just grinned like an innocent child and played with a stray lock of his long white hair.

Yami ignored the former tomb robber and looked down at his aibou.

As soon as Yami heard that Yugi had slipped into a coma, he called his friends. He called Anzu and Honda, who hadn't shown up yet due to traffic, he called Ryou and Bakura, who had rushed over as soon as they heard, and he called Jonouchi, Malik, and Marik. Malik and Marik were not here yet for the same reason that Anzu and Honda weren't: traffic. Kaiba was down the hall, talking to the doctors about what the chances were that Yugi would ever wake up. The doctor said that the chances weren't good at all.

_Yugi_, Yami let his aibou's name drift through his head. He closed his eyes again and tried his hardest to ignore Bakura's jokes, which were just an attempt to try and give Yami some hope that Yugi would be all right.

"_Don't worry. We will not let anything happen to them. We will protect Yugi for you all._"

The voice sounded familiar, but strange at the same time. Yami lifted his head and stole a glance around the room, but no one had said anything. The voice had been in the back of his mind all along. He frowned and laid his head back down on his aibou's hands, praying once more to any god that was listening to him.

**UNDERLAND**

All throughout the garden and the mushroom forest, animals were fleeing in terror. But many of them found themselves running into the arms of an equally dangerous foe. Tall Red knights in armor the shape of cards intercepted them, waving swords and spears and shouting orders to the others. The Blond Rabbit spotted the crest on their armor- a heart in flames- the Red Queen's crest. The Blond Rabbit bolted through a hedge, hoping to escape.

Ahead of him, a pink pig and a green flamingo were seized by rough, armor-clad arms and flung into a caged wagon. As the Rabbit darted under a low branch, he saw the Dodo slip through the circle and escape.

Unfortunately, the Rabbit was not so lucky.

A Red Knight grabbed his leg and lifted him into the air. The Rabbit flailed angrily, waving his paws and trying to pick at his captor. "Release me!" he yelled. "Let me go, you stupid bastards! I'll chew your fingers off for this, I fucking mean it!"

His threats went ignored as he was thrown into the cage with the other animals.

He snarled and turned to bite the armored hand, but the cage snapped shut behind him, and he and the other animals who had been captured were trapped.

**UNDERLAND**

Yugi saw none of this; he was still racing down a garden path. The statues without their heads looked even more ominous now. Yugi felt the smelly, hot breath of the Bandersnatch close on his heels. The ground shook as his meaty paws thundered behind him.

Suddenly, Yugi skidded to a stop. "Wait," he said. "It's only a dream! I'll be fine!" For a moment, the fear had made him forget. He nearly laughed aloud. "Nothing can hurt me here," he said to himself. He turned to face the oncoming Bandersnatch, who was coming up like a bat out of hell, eyes locked on Yugi.

Not far away, the Dormouse watched from behind a tree. He pressed his sand-colored paws to his face in disbelief. "What is that idiot doing?" he whispered.

The Bandersnatch stopped before Yugi and loomed over him. Green drools dripped from its mouth onto the floor around Yugi. The leaves and grass that it touched burned and vanished, as if it had been touched by acid. The creature opened its mouth wide to bite down on Yugi, its bloody shark teeth menacing.

"You can't hurt me!" Yugi yelled up at it.

This was an awfully realistic dream. But it had to be a dream. None of this could be real, right? There was no way that something like this was real. His knees shook as the green acid-like drool seeped forward and brushed his toe, where it stung like he had been burned by very hot water.

"Y-you can't," he gulped, less confident this time. "hurt me."

"Run, you fucking idiot!" the Dormouse screamed.

With a groan of despair as Yugi stood before the creature, trembling, the Dormouse darted out from behind the tree and leaped onto the Bandersnatch. It was so focused on Yugi, roaring, that it didn't even notice the tiny mouse. The Dormouse drew himself up, paw over paw, to the Bandersnatch's shoulder, and drove his hatpin straight into the pupil of its great, wild, rolling eye.

"_RROOOOOOOOWWWWRRRR_!" The Bandersnatch's roar of pain was the worst Yugi had ever heard in his life. It thrashed and kicked furiously, its paw reaching for its agonized eye. The Dormouse struggled to take back his hatpin, but he ended up snapping the whole eye out with him with a sickening pop.

The Bandersnatch's howls of fury and pain increased. It whipped around, lashed out its claws, and raked Yugi's upper arm with its long claws.

"Ow!" Yugi shrieked.

He gripped his bleeding arm, where scratched had already started to form, and he ran away, not wanting to test the dream anymore. The Dormouse ran as well, taking the bloody eye with him as spoils of war. The Bandersnatch sat and roared in agony, reaching to cover its bleeding eyehole with its meaty paw, glaring with its one good eye at the Dormouse, long gone by now.

**UNDERLAND**

Back at the mushroom forest, the Oraculum lay forgotten and unattended o the ground, where it had been dropped in the mad stampede to escape the oncoming Bandersnatch. A long, quiet moment passed, and then a grim-looking man with long back hair stepped out of the mist and stared down at it.

His flaming eyes matched the crest of the Red Queen on his chest. Reaching down, he picked up the Oraculum and studied the page that it had fallen open to.

An alarmed look flitted across his face.

He glanced around in horror and tucked the small scroll away into his saddlebag. Running back to his horse, he climbed aboard and snapped the reigns, riding away into the dark distance.

**UNDERLAND**

The Tweedles suddenly appeared, running one on the either side of Yugi. They both pointed to a path up ahead, where it diverged into two roads. A road sign indicated that one direction led to "OESTE" and the other led to "NORTE", which, since Yugi had never been to wherever this place was, didn't help him at all.

"This way!" Tweedledum shouted. "East to Oeste!"

"No! West to Norte!" Tweedledee bellowed.

Each grabbed an arm and tried to pull Yugi down his chosen path. Yugi felt like he were being ripped in two. He didn't care which way he went- he just wanted to get away!

An ear-splittinhg screech rang out from above.

The Tweedles froze in terror as an enormous bird came flying before them. It had the terrifying death-dealing beak of an eagle and the long, towering legs of an ostrich. Blood and green acid dripped from its mouth as it clattered its beak towards the three figures. Its glittering, black eyes darted from Yugi to one Tweedle and then to the other as it fast approached them.

"Jub-Jub bird!" screeched Tweedledee, turning to run.

The bird was quicker. It lunged forward with a loud screech and seized both the Tweedles in its claws. Yugi would have been caught along with them if Tweedledee hadn't thrown him to the ground.

Before Yugi could react, the bird was in the air, flapping away.

The Tweedles were gone. The Blond Rabbit was gone. Kaibae was gone. The Dodo who looked like Pegasus, as rude as he was, was gone. Yami wasn't here with him. Everyone was gone.

And Yugi was all alone.

* * *

Me: Oh no! Yugi's hurt, and now he's all alone!

Lucy: And Yami's hearing voices. Who could be calling to him, and just why would they protect Yugi for him? Yami, you better find out what's going on with your crush before it's too late!

Me: What will happen next?

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	7. A Bloodied Queen

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Next chapter!

Lucy: In this one, we will meet the Red Queen.

Me: And hopefully, we will learn a bit more than we already know about this bizarre world that Yugi has fallen in to! And what of Yami and all of his friends? Will they ever wake Yugi up?

Lucy: We hope so! Please enjoy!

_**Chapter Six: A Bloodied Queen**_

On the shores of the Bloody Sea stood the castle of Amane Bakurae, the Red Queen. From the top of its tall, twisting spires flew her flag, a heart in flames fluttering as if it were truly on fire. The craggy walls were too steep to scale, and vultures with ruby beaks and tar-colored feathers wheeled over the sharp rocks below, testifying to the victims of the Queen's wrath who had been tossed off the battlements.

Surrounding the castle on one side were the barren red sands of Crem, and the fierce waters of the Bloody Sea battered the other. It was a fortress, and the dangerous aura around it matched the darkness at the heart of its ruler.

Inside, the Red Queen was yelling.

The animal footmen- mostly frogs and a few fish- who lined the grand hall winced and gulped. Their legs trembled as they heard her footsteps and her shouts in a foreign language from an all but abandoned land called Estonia coming closer. The tall doors at the end of the hall suddenly came open, revealing the Red Queen herself.

The first thing one noticed about the Red Queen was her flaming red hair. The second thing one noticed were her dark brown eyes, and the third thing that one noticed was the snarl always on her lips. But her hair stood out the most of anything. It was painted to look crimson- that was not its natural color. The Queen had claimed that she had changed her hair color because she hated it. She said it looked too much like the color of her elder brother's hair, and since she hated him, she should hate anything that reminded her of him.

Her hair looked fake, to say the least.

Because the color was false, her hair stuck out in exaggerated spikes. The wind didn't ruffle it like it did with normal hair. The spikes flew in clumps all the time, but the Red Queen would pretend that her crimson hair was natural, that she was born with it.

And right now- as it often was- her face was contorted with anger.

"Who the Hell stole three of my tarts?" she roared. She seized the lapel of the nearest footman, a frog, and leaned into his face. Though the frog had a bigger face than she did, her eyes burned holes into him. "Did you steal them?"

"No, Your Highness," the frog stammered.

The Red Queen stalked down the long line of footmen, studying each of their faces through narrow eyes. At the end, she came upon a terrified frog.

"Did you?" she snarled.

"No, Your Majesty!" he cried.

Her brown eyes gleamed with anger and triumph. One long, pale finger reached out and wiped a telltale biyt of jam from the side of the frog's long mouth. His whole body shook as she held up her finger and sniffed the jam with her nose.

"Hm. Strawberry juice," she hissed.

The frog footman knew he had been caught.

"I-I was so hungry! I didn't mean to!" the frog wailed, nearly collapsing to the ground.

"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!" screamed the Red Queen.

Red Knights; gentlemen in suits of red armor thay resembled a deck of cards; hurried into the hall as fast as lightning and converged on the guilty frog footman.

The frog cried about his family and about his little ones, but his screams faded as he was dragged out the door.

The Red Queen turned to her fish bulter, licking her lips with her bright pink tongue. "Go to his house and collect the little ones. I love tadpoles as much as I love caviar," she said.

As she turned away, the fish repressed a shudder of disgust and anger.

"Majesty?"

The Red Queen turned, her face brightening. Her whole manner became flirty and simpering as the man who had taken the Oraculum strode down the hall toward her.

"Hmph. There you are, Ushio," she purred. "Where have you been lurking, knave?"

The Knave of Hearts, Ushio, bowed low and took her extended hand. He kissed it, but barely, only brushing it briefly with his lips. The Red Queen smiled and ruffled her gold and red dress.

"Majesty, I found the Oraculum," the Knave said, taking a step back.

The Red Queen led the way to the throne room and watched him unroll the scroll on the table.

"That?" she asked skeptically. "It looks so... plain."

"Look here," the Kave said, his face serious. "On the Frajous Day." He pointed to the illustration that had startled Yugi earlier, of the blond knight battling against the Jabberwock, the massive beast of nightmares.

The Red Queen narrowed her eyes. "I'd know that blond hair anywhere," she sneered. "Alice's reincarnate?"

"Reincarnation," the Kave corrected softly. "And I believe so."

The Red Queen peered closer, her eyes narrowing at the picture. "What's he doing with my darling Jabberwock?"

The Knave cleared his throat and took a large step out of the Red Queen's reach. He refused to look at the Red Queen for a few good moments, his face twisting with fear. "He, um, appears to be... slaying it."

The Red Queen's eyes almost popped out of socket. "He killed my Jabberbabywock?" she shrieked.

"Not yet," the Knave said. "But it will happen if we don't stop him."

"Fine him, Ushio," the Red Queen said, her voice rising. "Find him now!"

He stood and bowed. "I'll bring him head to you and lay it at your feet, Your Majesty."

"No," said the Red Queen.

She looked at the Oraculum and at the strange blond knight who was slaying her Jabberwock. Her eyes narrowed. She couldn't see the image as well as she would have liked, but the boy's smell would be enough for someone, one of her animals, to find him. She'd have him dead within an hour if everything went according to plan.

"Bring the whole boy," the Red Queen murmured. "I want to behead him myself."

**DOMINO HOSPITAL**

Yami hadn't slept since it had happened. Yugi had been unconscious for over twenty-four hours, and still, Yami stayed by his side. He held his hand, murmured calming words to him, but still, nothing woke Yugi.

The spirit of the Puzzle was starting to lose hope.

Still, his eyes never left Yugi, in case he moved.

All their friends were there.

Jonouchi and Sugoroku sat on a small couch in the room, fast asleep. Anzu and Honda sat beside each other, Anzu's head on his shoulder. Ryou and Bakura shared one chair, Ryou sitting on Bakura's lap as they slept. Marik and Malik had taken residence near the window. All were asleep, and that just tempted Yami to sleep more.

The spirit frowned and laid his head on his aibou's chest, listening to the soft heartbeat.

**UNDERLAND**

Ushio mounted his horse in the stableyard and looked coldy down at the silver and white bloodhound groveling on the paving stones.

Silver, short for Silver Fang, was a large, growling, bloodhound with drooping ears and sad eyes, but it was said that he had the sharpest nose in all the land. Three knights held him at bay with heavy ropes attached to the spiked collar around his neck. Silver kept wincing as the spikes dug into his loose skin.

The Knave of Hearts held no pity in his eyes. "Find the scent of a human boy and earn your freedom, got it?"

"For my wife and pups too?" asked Silver, lifting his head.

"Everyone goes home," said Ushio.

The bloodhound wolf lowered his nose to the ground and inhaled deeply. With a low growl, he bounded out through the castle gates with the few knights close behind him. Ushio reached down to stroke his horse's neck.

"Hmph," the horse muttered. "Dogs will believe anything."

**UNDERLAND**

Yugi finally stopped running. He leaned against a small tree, gasping for air. He had no idea where he was, but that had been the truth since he fell down the rabbit hole after getting hit by the car. He was surrounded by odd-looking trees, so it was some kind of wood, but a more normal one than the mushroom forest had been.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the gashes on his arm. Blood welled from the deep scratched, and he flinched when he touched them. How could something in a dream hurt this bad?

"Ahem," said a voice above him. "It looks like you ran into something with wicked claws."

"Yes, and I still didn't wake up!" Yugi said angrily. He looked up and realized that he was talking to... part of a cat. The cat's disembodied head floated in the air above a nearby branch. Yugi blinked twice, trying not to show his surprise.

"What did that to you?" asked the cat head.

Yugi tried to remember the name he had been told. "Banner... um..."

"Bandersnatch?" said the cat. His head disappeared suddenly, making Yugi jump. And then, the entire cat reappeared on the ground beside him. He sauntered over with a seductive grin, all calm, casual sensuality. Something tugged at Yugi's memory. He didn't know how he knew, but a name slipped into his mind: the Cheshire Cat. "I'd best have a look."

He inspected the wound for a moment. His pink tongue slid out and he reached to lick the gashes. Yugi jerked away.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

The cat blinked slowly at him with big blue eyes, looking amused. "It needs to be purified by someone with evaporating powers, or it will fester and putrify," he said, his smile widening as if that were a good thing.

That sounded horrible. But Yugi didn't want to be licked by a giant cat whose various body parts kept on disappearing.

"I'll be fine when I wake up," Yugi insisted.

"At least let me bind it for you," offered the Cheshire Cat, pulling a white silk handkerchief out of thin air. Yugi let him tie the silk around the wound on his upper arm. "So, what do you call yourself?" asked the cat as he worked.

"Yugi."

He looked up sharply. "_The_ Yugi?"

"There's been some debate about that," answered Yugi with a heavy sigh.

The Cheshire Cat sidled away from him with a grin. "I never get involved with politics. They're stupid." He glanced around as if to make sure that they were not being watched. "You'd best be on your way."

"Which way?" Yugi asked. "All I wanna do is wake up."

The Cheshire Cat levitated into the air and flipped, looking at Yugi upside down. "Fine. I'll take you to the Hare and the Hatter, but that's that!" It was only a second later that Yugi realized the cat had vanished. He looked around, searching for signs of the cat. There was nothing. Finally, he reappeared a short way away through the trees and gave Yugi a curious look. "Coming?" he asked.

There was nothing Yugi could do but follow.

* * *

Me: Yay! Yugi has met the Cheshire Cat, and now he's off to see the Hatter! Who do we all think that is?

Lucy: To find out, read on!

Me: We hope everyone is enjoying this story, and we shall update once we get some more reviews! We do enjoy getting reviews soo much, and we love hearing what you guys think!

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	8. Mad as a Hatter

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Next chapter!

Lucy: Someone we have all be waiting for has finally shown up!

Me: And then, in the next chapter, we will discover more things about the story! And even sooner, we will learn more about the Red Queen and the mysterious White King, who will appear right quick!

Lucy: We hope you all enjoy this chapter!

_**Chapter Seven: Mad as a Hatter**_

Even if Yugi had not known that they were going to the home of the March Hare, he might have been able to guess who lived in the unusual home they found at the end of the tangled, hidden path. It was not an ordinary house. The roof was thatched with thick fur instead of straw. The long chimneys were shaped like rabbit ears. The doorknob was a soft tuft of white fur- a rabbit's tail. Rabbit feet poked up out of the fround in place of a picket fence, and as Yugi peered at the house, he realized that it was peering right back at him with large pink rabbit eyes where the windows were supposed to be.

The Marched Hare was seated, asleep, around a long table in his front yard, presiding over a tea part with only two other guests.

And from the looks of it, the party had been dragging on for a very long time. The white tablecloth was stained and threadbare, with gimpses of the pale wood underneath peeking through the holes. The chairs stood at lopsided angles, waiting for guests who would never arrive. None of the pieces of the tea set matched; in front of the Hare, a blue willowware cup stood alongside a cracked white saucer and a pale green teapot. The rest of the set was an odd mixture of cracked pots and chipped cups, many of them tipped over next to ancient brown tea stains no one had ever bothered to try and clean up.

Slumped in one of the chairs, asleep and hugging a snow white teapot, was a pale, morose man wearing a ragged, scorched top hat. His dark velvet threadbare coat hung loosely on his thin frame, and his closed eyes were lined with circles of exhaustion. His hair was white and spiked all around his face, falling to his shoulders.

Yugi realized that the third member of the tea party was the Dormouse who looked like Malik. The gruesome, bloody eyes of the Bandersnatch hung like a trophy at his waist. He scowled when he saw Yugi emerge from the trees.

"Who? What? Where?" the Hare cried, sitting up, bolting awake.

The Dormouse reached to the Hare, who Yugi noticed looked like the animal form of Marik, Malik's yami. "Easy, Marike," said the Dormouse, his hand on the Hare's shoulder. "It's no one." He turned and scowled at Yugi again.

But the man, who the Cheshire Cat later called the Mad Hatter, had another reaction entirely.

At the sight of Yugi, he bolted upright, hitting the table and jotling everything. His whole being seemed to brighten; even his clothes perked up. He moved, transfixed, toward Yugi, stepping directly onto and over the table, as that was the shortest route to reach him. He set the white teapot on the table gently, not caring if he broke anything else.

"Watch what you're doing, Bakura!" the Dormouse shrieked. "You're breaking everything!"

Yugi gulped as the Hatter came closer, staring at him intently. Now that Yugi realized it, the Hatter did look exactly like Bakura, Ryou's yami and the spirit of the Millennium Ring, did. Something about the Hatter's face made Yugi anxious around him. He knew he didn't deserve the delighted look that the Hatter was giving him.

"It's you!" said the Mad Hatter. He reached out to poke Yugi on the shoulder, since Yugi was much tinier than he was due to the potion he had drank in the way beginning.

"No, it's not!" the Dormouse snapped. "That dumb rabbit brought us the wrong Yugi!"

The Mad Hatter shook his head, still smiling. "It's absolutely Yugi," he insisted. He turned back to look at Yugi. "You're absolutely Yugi, I'd know you anywhere! I'd know him anywhere, guys!"

This time he did touch Yugi, seizing his hand and pulling him back to the table. He stepped right up onto a chair and led Yugi over he table the way he had come, squishing and shattering some of the plates and cups in the process. Yugi tried not to step on any as they walked across the table. On the other side, the Hatter plunked him down in the chair next to his. Yugi fidgeted under his smiling gaze.

"Klutz!" the Dormouse shouted, throwing one of the cups at the Hatter. It missed by inches.

"Well, as you can see, we're still having tea," the Hatter explained, ignorning the Dormouse. "It's all because I was obliged to kill Time waiting for your return. You're terrible late you know. Naughty boy. Well, anyway-"

"Sugar!" the March Hare screeched suddenly.

"Time became quite offended and stopped altogether," the Hatter continued. "Not a tick ever since."

The March Hare picked up a cup, looked at the hole in the bottom, and then dropped it on the table. It shattered; he and the Dormouse laughed and pounded the table as if it were the funniest thing they had ever seen.

"Time is weird in dreams," Yugi commented.

The Hatter gave him a curious look. "Yes, yes, or course. But now you're back, and we need to get on with the Frabjous Day." He smiled as he said this, clapping his hands- covered in bloody bandages, his fingers pale and caked with old blood- together.

He seized the Hare'sleft paw and the Dormouse seized his right. All three of them raised their clasped hands into the air.

"Frabjous Day!" they all cried. "_Downal wyth Bluddy Rehd Hid!_"

They all dropped their hands as soon as their chant in a strange language was finished. They looked to Yugi, as if expecting him to say it as well, but he just stared at them with unblinking purple eyes.

"What?" Yugi asked, confused.

The Cheshire Cat rolled his eyes. He was lounging against the rabbit's-foot fence, which occasionally flinched as if it found his presence rather irritating, which it must, considering that he was a cat, and cats were enemies to rabbits.

"Down with the Bloody Red Head," the cat translated. "Bloody Red Head being the Red Queen." He glanced around, checking the trees.

"It's an ancient language used by us," added the Dormouse. "It was first founded in the land of Estonia, and only a few know it now. But it's used the most by us- the Underland Underground Resistance!" With a fierce expression, he raised his fist into the air. He looked too adorable to fear, but Yugi kept this thought to himself. The Dormouse already hated him enough.

The Cheshire Cat rolled his eyes again and wandered to the table, sliding into one of the chairs in a graceful, feline way. He picked up a teapot with half its spout broken off and poured some tea into a delicate porcelain cup with faded butterflies painted on it.

"Come, come. We simply must commence with the slaying and such," the Mad Hatter said, leaning forward. "Therefore, it's high time that Time forgive and forget! Or forget and forgive, whichever comes first. Or is in this case most convenient." He reached into his teacup and took out a small pocket watch and stared at it intently. "I'm waiting!"

As he tugged on his long ears, the March Hare had a terribly anxious expression.

He peered at his pocket watch, tapped its face, and listened to it for a moment. Then, to Yugi's surprise, he dunked it into his teacup, pulled it out, and then listened to it again. Tiny droplets of scalding tea splattered onto the Hare's furry sand-and-mocha colored chest.

He gasped. "It's ticking again!"

"Huzzah!" the Hatter shouted, throwing his hand into the air.

The Cheshire Cat made a disgusted face and set his teacup down on the tablecloth. "All this talk of blood and slaying has put me off my tea," he said, his voice showing his disgust.

"It's a great flavor," the Hare commented.

"The entire world is falling to ruin, and poor Chessur's off his tea," the Mad Hatter said with thinly veiled hostility.

The Cat's blue and black tail lashed angrily. "What happened that day was not my fault!"

Suddely enraged, the Hatter slammed both hands on the table. Cups and teapots went flying, and Yugi just barely avoided getting hot tea spilled on his legs. He pushed his chair back from the table, which was hard when you were so small, alarmed by the Hatter's angry expression. His eyes had gone from brown to dark purple. He looked exactly like Bakura had when he was under Zorc's influence. It sent a cold chill through Yugi's body to see that look again.

"You ran out to save your own skin!" the Hatter yelled at the cat. "You _guddler's scuttish pilgar lickering-_" His speech disintegrated into a wild, furious cursing, although it was a language Yugi didn't know. His voice sounded Scottish instead of British. "_Shukem juggling slunking ur-pals Bar lom muck egg brimni!_" But Yugi didn't need to understand the words coming out of his mouth to guess what he was expressing. The Cat's wide eyes were proof enough that it was something bad. The Hatter's rage kept building, and the curses flew faster and faster, as if he couldn't stop himself anymore. His eyes darkened from purple to black. The Cheshire Cat flipped around the table and put his paws over Yugi's ears as it seemed that the curses were getting more and more obscene.

"HATTER!" the Dormouse shouted.

The Mad Hatter jerked to a stop. He blinked, his eyes returning to a gentle dark brown. He composed himself, and then sat down and picked his teacup up again. "Thank you," he said, his voice strained. "I'm fine now."

"What would Ryou say if he heard you speakin' like that?" the Dormouse commented, but only Yugi heard it.

The Cheshire Cat snorted softly. "What's wrong with you, Bakura Tuozuko?" he asked, letting go of Yugi's ears and sitting in the chair on the other side of him. "You use to be the life of the party, not the death of it. You use to do the best _Futterwacken_ in all of Estonia."

"Futter what?" Yugi echoed.

"It's a dance," the Dormouse said.

The Mad Hatter smiled briefly, as if the name brought back fond memories. "On the Frabjous Day," he said. "when the White King once again has the crown, on that day, I shall _Futterwacken_... vigorously."

At that moment, the Hare sat up straight. "Red Knights!" he screeched.

"Uh-oh," the Cheshire Cat cried.

"Hide him, hide him!" the March Hare screeched.

"Good-bye," said the Cheshire Cat, then he immediately vanished into thin air. The Hatter grabbed a small bottle off the table and shoved it into Yugi's hands. It looked ominously familiar.

"Drink this," he commanded.

"Oh no," Yug said, remembering the room with the locked doors and the glass bottle he had found there.

He tried to resist, but the March Hare and the Mad Hatter forced the liquid down his throat. Before he could even shriek, he was six inches tall, his hands clinging to his loose articles of clothing.

The indignity was over. The Mad Hatter picked Yugi up and dropped him in the nearest teapot, which luckily was empty of tea. It was the white one that the Hatter had been clinging to. Yugi stumbled to his knees on the cold porcelain floor. His hands scrabbled at the smooth walls curving up on either side of her. The Hatter peeked in the top, and he saw his enormouse pale hand descending iwith the teapot lid.

"Mind your head," he sad, and then the sky disappeared.

Yugi sat down huffily and crossed his arms. It was dim except for a stream of light from the spout. Yugi could hear their voices outside clearly, but he wished that he couldn't.

**UNDERLAND**

Soon Ushio arrived with his two Red Knights, following the bloodhound's nose. The bloodhound headed straight for the table and began sniffing furiously around the ground.

"Well," sneered the Knave. "if it's not my favorite trio of lunatics."

"Want to join us?" asked the Dormouse.

"You're all late for tea!" shouted the Hare, flinging a teapot at them.

The Knave didn't bother to dodge. The teapot clattered harmlessly onto the path beside him as he surveyed the table with distain. "We're looking for a boy named Yugi, I believe his name is."

Inside the teapot, Yugi shuddered.

"Speaking of the Red Queen," said the Hatter as if the Knave had said something else. "here's a little song we used to sing in her honor."

All three of them burst into song at the same time, all of them off-key.

Yugi buried his head in his hands. These were the people protecting him? What was he supposed to do if the Knave killed them or took them all prisoner? He'd be stuck in a teapot, which felt... strange, somehow, six inches tall, and no one would ever think to look for him there. One day someone might by the teapot and wouldn't they be surprised to see his dusty bones inside. Yugi felt quite sorry for himself for a moment.

_It's just a dream_, he remembered. _There's nothing to be scared of. It's all a dream._

Back outside, the strange version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" broke off as Ushio grabbed the Hatter around the throat. One Red Knight cracked the March Hare with his weapon, while the other seized a teacup and poured hot tea all over the Dormouse's head. Both the Hare and the Dormouse screamed in pain.

"If you're hiding him, you'll lose your heads," growled the Knave.

"Already lost them," the Hatter said cheerfully, ignorning the thick hands around his thin neck. "All together now!"

The two others joined in for the rest of the song. They all started laughing crazily as they continuned. The Knave let go of the Hatter's neck, his expression disgusted. The Hatter watched his warily as he walked back to the Knights.

Peering up the spout, Yugi saw a large black nose appear. The bloodhound put his paws on the table, sniffing the white teapot. The Hatter stole a glance at the Knave, who had turned his back for a moment. While the other two kept singing, the Hatter leaned down toward the bloodhound and took a chance.

"_Downal wyth Bluddy Righ Hid_," he whispered. He gave the white teapot a significant look.

The bloodhound stopped dead. He stared into the Hatter's haunted eyes for a moment. He stole another look at the teapot. It was white, the color of snow, and it was unmarked except for two little initials engraved in the side, as if written by a child.

R. B.

The bloodhound knew what that meant. The name of the Red Queen's elder brother, the White King.

Ryou Bakurae.

Then the large dog-like wolf dropped to the ground and kept sniffing, pretending to catch a new trail. He hurried off into the woods again, his howl loud and drawn out as long as possible.

"Follow the bloodhound," snapped the Knave. He lingered as the two Knights pursued the dog.

"Sugar? One lump or two?" asked the March Hare, tossing two sugar cubes at the Knave, who promptly ducked and snarled at the mocha-and-sand colored rabbit.

"You're all mad," he snarled, walking away from the caterwauling partygoers.

Once they were all out of sight, the Mad Hatter lifted the lid to Yugi's teapot. "Pardon, one moment," he said. He produced a pair of milliner's scissors from his pocket and quickly whipped up something for Yugi to wear using anything that he could find. The Hatter handed the new outfit to Yugi and closed the lid again to give him some privacy.

A few moments later, there was a tiny knock at the lid. He opened it and let Yugi out.

Wearing the new remade outfit, Yugi had to admit that it was better than his school uniform, which was destroyed by now. It was alot more comfortable than the outfit his grandfather had made him wear for the party.

"Ooh, I love it!" cooed the Hatter with a dramatic sigh. "I'm such a genius."

"Good thing the bloodhound is one of us, or you'd be..." the Dormous said, as he drew his finger across his neck with an ominous noise,

The March Hare was wringing his wrists against, looking around quickly. "Best take him to the White King," he suggested quickly. "He'll be safe with the King." He looked down and picked up a spoon. "Spoon..."

The Hatter frowned.

"As much as I hate to imagine the King seeing me in such a state, we have no choice," he said. The Hatter swept his hat off and put it on the table right at Yugi's side. "Here's your carriage, m'lord."

Yugi raised an eyebrow. He looked at the Hatter, then the hat, and then back again. "Your hat?" he asked.

"Of course!" smiled the Hatter. "Anyone can travel by horse, but the best way to travel is by hat!" He smiled and then looked around at the group as if expecting a round of applause. "Did I make a rhyme yet?"

"Not even close," chimed the Dormouse.

"Shit," the Hatter frowned.

Yugi climbed on the hat, trying not to show how nervous this made him. The Dormous trotted over as well and climbed onto the hat right next to Yugi, shoving him aside a bit. "I love traveling like this!" he said with a happy sigh. But when he looked up, the Hatter was shaking his head. The Dormouse frowned and glared jealously at Yugi.

"Sorry, Makky," said the Hatter. "Just Yugi this time, please."

The Dormouse climbed off the hat with a huff and gave Yugi another jealous glare as the Hatter swung the hat and Yugi off the table an onto his head. Yugi clung to the hat for dear life, trying to keep his teeth from chattering.

"_Fairfarren_, all!" called the Hatter in a sing-song voice.

He started off for the woods, humming a song that sounded strangely familiar to Yugi. It was in a foreign language, he could tell, but it was a bit of a comfort to him, and he gradually released his tight grip on the hat.

"What?" shrieked Marike the Hare, horrified that the Hatter was leaving them.

Yugi and the Hatter ducked as a teapot, hopefully not the white one that the Hatter cared so much about, hurtled past them. Yugi couldn't help but think that the Knave was right about these three.

They were all mad.

And yet... he had no one else. Mad or not, it seemed he was stuck with them.

* * *

Me: Yay! Yugi is off with Bakura, the Mad Hatter, to meet the White King, who I think we all know who he is in Wonderland now!

Lucy: But what of Yami? Does he have a role in Underland, or is there something Yugi doesn't know about? And what about what's happening in the real world, where Yugi's body is?

Me: You'll have to read to find out! We'll be updating Seven Days to Suffer next!

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


	9. Trapped

**Title**: Yugi's Adventures in Wonderland

**Genre**: romance, humor, supernatural, fantasy

**Rating**: T for language and violence

**Pairings**: YamiXYugi; BakuraXRyou; MarikXMalik; KaibaXJonouchi

**Summary**: Yugi Mouto, the childish and innocent wielder of the Millennium Puzzle, now a kind and gentle 18-year-old, is brought to a party full of CEOs, only to find out that he has been betrothed to a dunce of a CEO heir, the snooty, stuck-up son of Yugi's father's old friend. At his engagement party, he escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage, when he's truly in love with Yami, the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle who was given a body a long time ago, and is dragged down a hole after spotting an unusual rabbit and getting hit by a car he didn't see in the road. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," he finds himself in a world that resembles the nightmares he had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens, kings, and knights, and frumious Bandersnatches. Yugi realizes that he is there for a reason- to conquer the horrific Jabberwock and restore the rightful king to his throne. If he can't do that, he'll never return home to his dear sweet Yami, the true love of his life.

Me: Next chapter!

Lucy: Yugi's off with Bakura, the Mad Hatter, but what will happen to them?

Me: There is a bit about who Henry is in this chapter, so please read on if you wish to find out more about who Henry is and why he's so important to Wonderland and to Yugi!

Lucy: Please enjoy!

_**Chapter Eight: Trapped**_

Yugi hung on tight as the Mad Hatter, Bakura Tuozuko, sauntered through the Tilgey Woods at a jaunty pace. Low branches brushed by right over Yugi's head and sunlight trickled through the green leaves. It was surprisingly peaceful, considering he'd nearly been eaten by a Bandersnatch and taken prisoner by a Knave not very long ago.

The Hatter was muttering something, but even the words Yugi could make out sounded like nonsense.

_'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves_  
_Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;_  
_All mimsy were borogroves,_  
_And the mome raths outgrabe._

He warbled like a child reciting a poem he'd memorized at school. Yugi knew this poem, or so he thought. He had heard it once before when he was watching a movie with Yami.

He carefully climbed down and perched on the Hatter's shoulder.

"What was that?" he asked.

"What was what?" the Hatter asked. Then he continued:

_The Jabberwock with eyes of flame_  
_The jaws that bite_  
_The claws that catch_

_Beware the Jabberwock, my son,_  
_and the Frumious Bandersnatch._  
_He took his Vorpal Sword in hand._  
_The Vorpal Sword went snicker-snack_

_He left it dead, and with its head,_  
_He went galumping back._

"It's all about you, you know?" he finished with a sigh.

Yugi groaned. It was time to put that idea to rest. "I'm not killing anything, so put it out of your mind, got it?" he snapped. "I'm not a killer."

The Hatter stopped in his tracks. "Hmmm... mind." He looked at Yugi and plucked him off his shoulder. He dropped the small boy onto a log and kept on walking. Astonished, Yugi struggled to follow after him. With his new tiny size, he had to sprint to catch up to him, but Bakura was still too fast for him.

"Wait!" he called. "You can't just leave me here!"

At this size, he was reasonably afraid that a hawk might swoop down and eat him. Or a squirrel, if they even had them here. If they did, they probably had blue jackets or black waistcoats or somethig strange like that.

The Mad Hatter turned to him and stared. "You don't slay," he mocked. "Have any idea what the Red Queen's done?"

Yugi spread his hands; it wasn't fair of this Bakura to mock him. "I couldn't kill something if I wanted to!" he protested. He was supposed to be a sweet and innocent hikari, sworn against killing anything. He was sweet and kind and afraid of almost everything, prompting Yami to stay by his side and protect him from the horrors of the world. How could this Bakura, this Mad Hatter, expect someone who'd never so much as held a real sword to fight some dragon-demon?

The Hatter put his hands on his hips. "Well, I-"

He paused suddenly and glanced around, as if someone were speaking to him specifically.

"Yes, but-" He paused again and sighed. "Really now, you can't be-" He growled and swatted at the air, as if being tormented by an inivisble spirit that Yugi couldn't see. "Henry!"

There was that name again. Yugi blinked. "Henry?" he asked, but the Hatter didn't look at him.

The Hatter sighed, the voice seeming to leave him alone. He looked at Yugi, his expression accusing and sad. "You're not the same as you once were," he said. "Something's different. You were much... muchier. You've lost your muchness, you have." He nodded, as if that made perfect sense, which it didn't.

"Muchness?"

The Hatter crouched and poked Yugi in the stomach with a single bloody finger. "In here," he said. "Something's missing."

The Hatter stood up and tried to walk away again. Yugi frowned thoughtfully. What did Bakura mean? How could he know that Yugi was missing something if they'd never met before, at least in this world? After a moment, Yugi ran after him.

"Tell me what the Red Queen's done!"

He stopped.

"It's not a pretty story."

Yugi spread his hands again and gave Bakura a reassuring smile. "So tell me anyway," he said.

Sighing, the Hatter scooped him up and plopped him down on his shoulder. They started forward again, although now Yugi noticed that the trees around them were changing. Instead of the smooth brown trunks and fluttering green leaves he had seen, the plants here were blackened and twisted and evil, branches horribly charred, reaching toward the skies like the fingers of sinners who forever burned in the lower depths of Hell for all eternity.

The Hatter pushed through a thicket of dead branches, and they came to a place where the ground was socrched and barren in a wide circle all around them.

His eyes watered, his voice filled with emotion.

"It happened here a long time ago. I was Hatter to the White King at the time. The Tuozuko clan was always employed by his court..."

His eyes stared blankly ahead at the blackened place as he drifted in his memory of the Horunvendush Day. His whole clan had been there- all the Tuozuko's, adults and children, festive in their shiny new top hats. Bakura could remember them cheering for the White King and his court as they rode into the clearing on glittering white horses, a man in all red riding behind them on a red horse. Bakura remembered being enticed and in love with the White King for a long time, as he still was. But this memory of his sweet King was the clearest of them all: his long white hair flying back behind him, his thin frame clad in all white. The man in red rode behind them, his crimson eyes flashing, smiling down at the citizens. The Cheshire Cat floated by his head. Bakura recalled being flushed and extrememly happy when the White King reached for his hand, beckoning him to his side. Bakura was only too happy to comply.

Looking out in the center of the clearing, the white figure holding the Vorpal sword, the White Knight, grinned and waved to the crowd.

Bakura remembered the sudden rush of terror that brushed against all their hearts as enormous leathery wings blocked out the sun. The woods went dark around them. All faces were filled with horror- they had never seen such a beast!

The White Knight- their hero, their champion, the one who was supposed to fight for them against all horrors- gaped at the terrifying creature, dropped the Vorpal Sword, and fled into the trees.

It took mere moments for panic to set in. If their Knight was too afraid to fight, then there was no one to defend them from the Jabberwock. The screams broke out as everyone ran for their life, pushing and trampling anyone in their way. Fire and purple lightning streaming from the mouth of the Jabberwock blazed over their heads.

The White King's horse reared, and the King's silver crown tumbled off his head.

Spitting a curse at the Jabberwock, the White King raised his fist at the beast. He bit into his lower lip, waiting for the beast to blow flames or the burning lightning onto him.

Bakura took hold of the reins on his horse, losing his hat in the process.

Refusing to look at the White King's face, Bakura dragged him to safety, hearing the King screaming for his people, shouting at the Jabberwock and cursing it, but that was all he could do. Everyone knew it. The King had taken an oath against slaying anything or even hurting another living thing, so what could he do?

For one moment, Bakura looked back.

He saw the man clad in red standing beside his crimson horse, staring at the Jabberwock as if it were the most horrid thing in existence. His lips were trembling, and he glanced over his shoulder at Bakura as the Jabberwock turned his gaze to the man in red.

"Henry(1)!" Bakura cried.

Henry, the man clad in red, glanced over at Bakura ad shook his head sadly.

As they fled, Bakura saw the Knave of Hearts, Ushio, pick up the Vorpal Sword and hold it up victoriously. He turned and smiled an unfriendly grin at Henry, who lowered his crimson-haired head. "Tut tut, Your Majesty." With a howl, the Jabberwock retreated, leaving csrnage and disaster in its wake... and one single surviving member of the once-sprawling Tuozuko clan.

The Hatter had returned to the scene later.

His face was contorted with shock and horror as he crouched, touching the still-smoldeirng earth where his entire family had died. Only one burned and trampled top hat remained. The Hatter took it in his hand, brushed off some of the dirt, and placed the wreckage on his head, where it still sat to this very day.

Yugi watched him as he told his story. His heart ached for the poor Hatter. Now he could understand why the Hatter was insane, and he couldn't help but pity him. Yugi looked up at the scorched hat the Hatter wore, and then at his tormented face. Bakura twitched, driven to the edge of his madness by guilt, helpless rage, and endless loss.

"Hatter?" Yugi said. He remembered how Malike the Dormouse had handled this situation. "Hatter!"

Bakura jerked, pulling himself back from the abyss. "I'm fine," he croaked.

"Are you?" Yugi asked.

Instead of answering, the Hatter whipped his head around toward the black trees that surrouded them on all sides. "Did you hear that?" he said softly. "I could've sworn I'd heard something."

Yugi strained to hear it too. "What?"

Bakura whipped in the other direction. "Ooh, fuck! Red Knights!" he cried.

The bloodhound's chilling howls echoed through the woods. The Hatter slipped Yugi into his pocket and started to run. Yugi clung to the fabric and tried to hold on with all his might as the world bumped and clattered around him. It was dusk now, and the lowering darkness made all the new shadows seem menacing.

The Hatter dodged trees and leaped over stumps, running flat out. He could see the edge of the forest ahead. But just before he reached it, a flash of red caught his eye from the right. He veered to run away, but a Red Knight stepped out in front of him. Quick as a wink, the Hatter turned to go in the opposite direction, but there was another Red Knight there, waiting for him.

They were trapped.

* * *

Me: No! They've been cornered! (1) So we now know who Henry is, or we can infer it! But will Yugi know?

Lucy: What are they going to do now?

Me: Read on if you wanna know what will happen to them all?

Lucy: Please review the chapters because we want losts of nice reviews, and we think that we won't get many because we're not sure how good this story is or if many people even like it!


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